A good day cooking!

 Roasting garlic, making pasta,  drinking wine! It was a good day!

The traditional Italian meal has multiple courses.  Which may make you groan at the thoughts of all that food!  The good thing is each course is a small portion so it never seems like an overwhelming amount of food.

Antipasto - We think of it as a platter of certain foods, but it is the Italian's way of luring you into the meal and can be as elaborate or as simple as you would like.

Primi - Is the first course, in which Pasta is the star.  You could serve pizza, but really this where Pasta is meant to be savoured.

Secondi with Contorni- the Main meal, meat or fish with a side of some kind - beans, grains, vegetables you name it.

Dolci - Dessert - fruit, simple cakes, gelato Yum!

From The Tuscan Sun Cookbook my menu included:

Antipasto

Baked Olives with Citrus Peel & Garlic

Roasted Garlic with Bruschetta

Primo

Potato Ravioli with Zucchini, Speck and Pecorino

Secondi with Contorni

Short Ribs Tuscan Style

Roasted Asparagus

Dolci

Peaches with Almond Cream

There was a lot of firsts with this menu, simple ones but still firsts!

Despite how easy it is I have never roasted garlic before.  Slice off the top of a head of garlic, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, wrap in foil and roast in the oven for about 45 minutes!  The results are creamy caramelized goodness to spread over Bruschetta.  Funny thing we think of Bruschetta as the tomato topping over toasted bread, but really Bruschetta is the bread itself; toasted, spread with olive oil, you can eat as is or top with a variety of things.

While in Italy we spent an afternoon with a Nonna making pasta.  I have made pasta a couple of times since returning, each time with a different recipe, but I think I finally found the recipe that works for me.  A nice workable dough to turn into ravioli - another first! Making ravioli!  Up until now I have just made spaghetti or linguini noodles.  (PS: Speck is a smoked prosciutto, but you can use bacon).

I have cooked regular ribs and I have eaten short ribs, but I have not cooked short ribs before.  This slow roasted recipe makes a very flavourful dish with the meat practically falling off the bone; and with the short ribs there is actually some meat to savour, unlike regular ribs sometimes.

Tasty fresh peaches are still available there now, so that influenced my choice for dessert.  The almond cream contains mascarpone cheese,  which we often associate with a dessert item.  Our tour guide in Italy said fresh mascarpone cheese was one of his favourite breakfast foods!  This dish was a lush way to enjoy sweet fresh peaches.

I am so glad there are leftovers so I can enjoy the meal all again!

A trip down Italian Memory Lane

Two years ago at this time, I was on an amazing trip to Italy.  After a couple of days touring Rome on my own I meet up with friends for a wonderful wine and food tour of Tuscany.

Some of those friends are back in Italy again doing a food and wine tour of the Sicily area.  Thanks to the wonders of Social Media I am able to travel along with them through their facebooks posts,  I am also reminiscing as facebook memories pop up daily from my trip 2 years ago.

As I can't be back to Italy right now I thought I would at least enjoy the flavours of Italy by enjoying a glass of Chianti Classico Riserva while I browse this week selection  - an Italian Cookbook of course!

I didn't't buy The Tuscan Sun Cookbook by Frances Maves and Edward Maves while in Italy,  I never bought any cookbooks there.  I guess I was too busy doing wine tasting (sometimes 3 a day!), visiting olive groves and seeing how pecorino cheese is made to buy cookbooks.

Shortly after I returned home I bought The Tuscan Sun Cookbook as an e-book.  This is only one of about 3 e-cookbooks I own.  A novel is fine as an e-book but a cookbook really is much better as a hard copy :)

The Tuscan Sun Cookbook is the cookbook companion to the book Under the Tuscan Sun which tells the story of American Professor and Poet Frances Mayes journey as she buys a 300 year old property in Tuscany and falls in love with the local cuisine.  The book would later be made into the movie Under the Tuscan Sun starring Diane Lane.  I didn't realize the connection between the movie when I bought the book.    I bought the Tuscan Sun Cookbook as it had items that reminded me of my trip to Tuscany, with great descriptions of the food as well.

The beauty of the food I had in Italy was simple local ingredients combined together with care to create flavourful creations.    This was authentic Tuscan food, but just like in Canada you can find mass produced flavourless food in Italy.  Fortunately most of what I saw was the traditional Tuscany food.  I got to see the whole process from where it was grown, to how it was prepared to make wonderful multi-course meals that left you satisfied but not stuffed. And of course there was plenty of wine!.

I am looking forward to getting out my pasta maker,  having the smells of garlic, olives, tomatoes  permeate the kitchen and enjoying another glass of Chianti!  Let's get cooking.

James Barber The Urban Peasants Cooking for Two

Cooking for Two not only provides recipes that serve two people, but the instructions were written as if two people are preparing the recipes.  Even though I was cooking by myself the recipes were all simple and easy to prepare.
In the introduction James Barber states the recipes in this book are "basically simple"  because his goal is to get people in the kitchen cooking to show them how easy is it to cook good food that is readily available and not expensive.

I made several recipes, my featured  meal was

Tomato and Bread Soup

Rye Chicken with Pan Haggerty with a Lovely Zucchini Sauté 

 Oranges with Grated Dark Chocolate

In addition, for a quick lunch I prepared Stracciatella Soup and when friends were dropping in for tea I tried the Raspberry Coffee Cake.

I chose the Tomato and Bread soup because I was the recipient of an abundant tomato crop that I needed to use up. Simple ingredients come together into a delicious soup.  It can be left chunky for a quick lunch or pureed for a fancy start to the meal.  (Sorry no picture - the soup was so good technology ate the picture!)

I have used alcohol in dessert items and wine in main entrees but never alcohol in a main course so the Rye Chicken intrigued me.  My concern that the rye would overpower the dish was unfounded.  The chicken had a nice sweet smokey flavour that a gave a depth of flavour I have never had before.  Paired with Pan Haggerty, which is described as a coal miner's supper from Northeast England, a yummy dish of potatoes, onions and cheese - how could you go wrong.

Another vegetable in abundance right now Zucchini was turned into a Lovely Zucchini Sauté, the few additional ingredients in the recipe (garlic, basil, good quality olive oil)  just helped the vegetable to blossom into a great a side dish

The Oranges with Grated Dark Chocolate is not so much a recipe but a reminder that food does not have to be complicated.  A couple of good quality ingredients  - an orange, dark chocolate and cinnamon, all things we probably already have in the house; carefully assembled can make an impressive end to the meal.

The Urban Peasant Cooking for Two was ahead of its time in reminding people that good quality simple ingredients can come together easily to make a satisfying meal that can be as elegant as you want to make it.  Cooking with what is in-season and available saves time from searching for obscure items that you may only use once.  If you can find this books I would highly recommended adding it to your collection.  

Canadian Television Chef before TV Chefs were cool!

James Barber hosted The Urban Peasant a Canadian television cooking show on CBC in the '90's.  This was before television cooking shows were a big thing.  His love of food led him to the culinary world.  He wasn't into pretence.  His goal was to get people back in the kitchen!

Born in the UK, he came to Canada in his late 1920's and still had a slight english accent when he did his cooking show.  His show, like his food, was straight forward, hardy food with an eye toward the budget.  Encouraging people to cook what was in season to save money.

I purchased his cookbook James Barber The Urban Peasant Cooking for Two as a gift for my mother.  Mom found it hard once she and Dad became empty nesters to scale down her cooking.  Mom was used to cooking for large crowds, having come from a large family and she always cooked extra in case some stopped in for a meal.  She was also a cook at the local school for years.

Mom did like trying new recipes, but mostly dessert items so I don't think she tried anything in the book and since I inherited Mom's cookbooks I must admit I probably haven't even looked at this book until now.

I remember watching James Barber's cooking show,  his aim was to show that anyone can cook and what good simple ingredients can become. He was a little ahead of his time encouraging people to get back in the kitchen and to cook from scratch which did not have complicated.  Thanks to the wonders of the internet we can still see clips of his show - check it out.  It is good basic cooking show that actually tries to show people how to cook.  Not an infotainment show like many of the cooking shows now.

The Urban Peasant Cooks for Two contains not only recipes for 2 people but the instructions assume that 2 people are preparing the recipes.  Instructions are provided for each person.  For example in his recipe for Sausage in Beans the instructions indicate "While you chop the onion, garlic, chili pepper and tomato, have someone slice the sausage into coins 1/2" thick"

He felt cooking together was a great way to introduce someone to the joys of food or just get the meal on the table faster!

I think I will be grabbing this recipe book a little more often for a quick meal!  Stay tuned for this weeks meal.

  

Eat Delicious by Dennis the Prescott

It was a busy week and I did not get a chance to post this weeks cookbook selection before today!  So, this will be a longer post.

Eat Delicious is one of my newest cookbooks.  Received this past Christmas Gift it is still sitting on my coffee table with lots of tabs in it indicating the recipes I want to try.  Since the tabs were all there I just had to figure out a menu!

Written by Dennis the Prescott a native New Brunswicker, a musician who learned to cook, out of necessity, while on the road with the band.   He threw himself into the process, not only by developing his own recipes but also styling and photographing the food.  He became an Instagram sensation with his food photography on his account Eat Delicious, Dennis the Prescott which lead to the book.

Easy to prepare recipes from scratch, with his own unique instructional style.  He explains them as if he was having a conversation with you, for example in his recipe for English Muffins he tells you to "let the dough get nice and comfortable until it's double in size,"!
I was going to make the Homemade English Muffins, as I have not made English muffins before, but the week got away from me, but it is still on my to do list.  What I did make was;

Cured Salmon (page 20)

Cheesy Marinara Gnocchi Bake (page 98-100)

Tuscan-Style Panzanella Salad (page 292)

and for dessert, because there is an abundance of great apples out there:

Salted Caramel Apple Parfaits.  (page 315)

Smoked Salmon is a treat that I have at Christmas and my Birthday.  I have seen many recipes for Cured Salmon but have always been timid of trying.  Usually the recipes called for a large amount of salmon - what if it didn't turn out, what a waste. 

The recipe in the book is really very simple,  the only hard part was waiting the 48 hours before I could enjoy the results but it was worth the wait!  Silky smooth with just the right balance of flavours.  In addition to a dinner appetizer I have been enjoying the salmon with cream cheese on a bagel for breakfast the last few mornings - I am in heaven.   My Christmas treat just got better!

Gnocchi is something I frequently buy but rarely make - I am not sure why because Gnocchi is simple to make.  A fact I was reminded of when I decided to try the Cheesy Marinara Gnocchi Bake in the book.  The simple Marinara sauce with a little heat from the red pepper flakes was a great sauce to combine with the Gnocchi that went in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese.   In my opinion, once you have made your own Marinara Sauce you will never go back to store bought and this Marinara Sauce will certainly be a go to sauce again and again. 

I paired the Gnocchi bake with the Tuscan-Style Panzanella Salad.  I must admit I haven't been using a lot of leafy greens in my salads lately.  Usually when I buy leafy greens they wilt or go bad before I have a chance to eat them all up.  With this salad there was not a leafy green in site.  Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Red Onions tossed in a flavourful vinaigrette.  Throw in some home made croutons and you have got a great salad that is almost a meal on its own. 

I ended the meal with Salted Caramel Apple Parfaits.  There seems to be a lot of steps to make  this dessert. The Salted Caramel Sauce, saute the apples, make the granola, whip the cream, but it really didn't take much time to bring together.  The caramel sauce had a nice hint of smokiness that balanced the sweet.  The granola had a satisfying crunch and the whole thing together made for a lip smacking finish to the meal.

Dennis the Prescott provides easy instructions to both traditional dishes (with a twist)  and new ones. Eat Delicious is still easy to find, so if you don't have it I would recommend adding it to your collection.

Though one thing I have learned from looking through this cookbook - I have to work on my food styling / photography!  Have a great week.  Off to pick out my next cook book.

Lunch Box Fun

In the spirit of back to school I had pulled two books from my shelf to review, both of which I purchased while in elementary school from Scholastic Book Service.

The Cookie Book by Eva Moore
Peanuts Lunch Bag Cook Book with Cartoons by Charles M. Schulz and recipes by June Dutton

Looking through the books provided a great trip down memory lane, reflecting on early school days but also thinking about some of my early attempts at cooking!

From the Peanuts Lunch Bag Cook Book I made

Lucy's Crabby Sandwich

Little Deviled Ham Sandwiches

April Fool Proof Potato Salad

Good Ol' Coleslaw

Miss Othmar's Tested Mayonnaise

It was the first time making home made mayonnaise which was then used in the crabby Sandwich and potato Salad.  It provided a nice complex flavour that you don't get from commercial mayonnaise. 

I choose the Lucy's Crabby Sandwich version with Avocado because I am sure as I kid I would have wondered what an Avocado was,  not something that was available in rural New Brunswick at that time.  Now I will admit with the exception of Tuna Salad Sandwich I don't eat many sandwiches made from canned protein,  nothing wrong with the canned products, especially if a Hurricane is coming and you need shelf stable protein options.  But as a regular sandwich filling I think I will stick with other available options. 

The salads were a different story the Good Ol' Coleslaw had lots of other vegetable with the cabbage and was made with a tangy oil and vinegar dressing.  This recipe is definitely a make again.  Actually I think I will make it later this week for a BBQ potluck I am attending.

Everyone has an idea what Potato Salad should taste like and they will judge any other Potato Salad by their ideal.  Well this one passed the test for me.   It very much seemed like most potato salads but I think it was the addition of chopped dill pickles that made the difference in taste. It will be also a recipe I will consider the next time I make potato salad. 

From the Cookie Book we have two cookie selections, because why make one batch of cookies when you can make two!

One of my goals of this endeavour was to not make a recipe I had made before from the cookbooks selected.  As I had mentioned I have made all the recipes in the Cookie Book but one (and I still don't like pineapple so I was still not going to make the recipe!), which meant I had to make some repeats.  Since I probably haven't made the recipes in this cookbook since I was about 12 years old - it was like making a new recipe! 

The cookbook is based on a cookie of the month, therefore in honour of September I made Snickerdoodles!  I also made Three-color Sugar Cookies because I made the recipe frequently as a kid. Both are classic recipes that are easy to whip for kids of all ages and both cookies lived up to my memory.  

Time to sign off because I think it is recess time I think I will go colour while I have some milk and cookies.   Or maybe I can find someone to play Jacks with?  Anyone want to play?   

Cook! Revisited

Post Tropical Storm Dorian is bearing down on the Maritimes today, fortunately I am in an area that it on the outer bands of the storm so the only impact has been heavy rain and some wind, certainly nothing like other areas of the Maritimes are receiving.

I did a quick trip to the Farmer's Market this morning and among things I picked up were some beets.  Growing up we always had a garden and there was always beets.  The majority of the beets were for pickled beets but for a brief window of time we had my absolute favourite vegetable "Buttered Beets"!

Buttered beets sound fancy but were simply cooked beets that are then sliced and heated with butter and salt & pepper.  I think what made them so special was we only had them a couple of times each summer.   Mom liked to make her pickled beets before the beets got too large and since cooking beets is so messy, as soon as the beets were ready they were made into pickles which left very little to make Buttered Beets.

I saved a few beets from todays purchase to make Buttered beets for supper but my intended use for them was to make Beet Jelly a recipe from Cook! It intrigued me when I saw the recipe a few weeks ago.    To me, it is more like a relish, with the taste of harvard beets.  It will be great with roasted meets this winter.

I also tried my hand at Lemon & Lavender Tea Cookies also from Cook!.  This was one of Mary Sue Waisman's own recipe that she contributed to the compilation cookbook.  Mary Sue spoke of the cookies often and said she made them frequently particularly for special occassions.  When I first saw the recipe, many years ago,  I had no intention of making them  as I don't like lavender.   I find the smell of lavender overwhelming. If I go by a lavender plant or I am in a store with dried lavender I usually have to leave.

I recently attended a cooking class where we made Lavender Chicken.  I was skeptical but it turned out delicious and the smell of cooking lavender was not as over powering as I thought it would be.  I enjoyed the chicken so much that I  purchased some cooking lavender.  So when I saw the Lemon & Lavender Tea Cookies I knew I had to make them.  The only reason I didn't make it as part of the original post was because I had to make lavender sugar - which takes about 2 weeks for the flavours to blend.

I can see why Mary Sue considered these a signature cookie.  Nice subtle flavour in a bite size morsel.  They would look lovely on a cookie tray.  I would certainly make them again.  Anyone want a cookie?

Remembering Scholastic Books

It is back to school week in my area of the world,  with kids big and small heading off with freshly sharpened pencils and crisp new scribblers for another year of learning.
I enjoyed heading back to school to see friends I had not seen all summer, buying new schools supplies and seeing who my teachers would be for that year.

One of the other things I liked about the school year was access to books,  I liked all kinds of books; not just cook books!  I don't know if anyone else remembers the Scholastics Books order form.  A couple of times a year a newsletter would arrive featuring different books that students could order.  Growing up in rural New Brunswick without easy access to a good bookstore this was often the way I got new books and  I was fortunate that I was usually able to order a book each time the newsletter came out.

This is actually how I obtained some of my first cookbooks! This week I am going to feature two  cookbooks because both are from Scholastic Books, but also if I want to make a "complete" menu I need to feature more than one cookbook!

I have no way of knowing exactly when I obtained the books but I am suspecting probably around Grade 3 or 4!

The Cookie Book is probably the only cookbook I own were I have made almost all the recipes.  The Cookie Book featured a cookie of the month (with some variations)  and each month I diligently made every single recipe except one "Tiny Timmies" because it had pineapple in it and I don't like pineapple! Written for young cooks as directions were provided in great detail, I also had my own notes about how the cookie turned out.  Several of the cookies became a regular feature in my house, because supper was not over unless dessert was served which was often a cookie or a small square.

The second book Peanuts Lunch Bag Cook Book I suspected I ordered because I liked the Peanuts Comic Strip more so than I wanted ideas for my lunch box!  It provided all kinds of suggestions for a lunch box, back in the day when there was no microwaves and the lunch box sat on a shelf until lunch time.  All the basic sandwich fillings were covered with variations on each one.  It also includes a recipe for home made bread, home made mayonnaise and salads that could be packed in your lunch.  I don't recall if I tried many of the recipes.  I am pretty sure I didn't try "Linus Loves Liverwurst Sandwich"  but I might have tried "Schroeder's Harmonious Ham Sandwich'  except for the variation that included Avocado - because Avocados in rural New Brunswick in the late 1970's would have been an unknown food.

Going through the books and thinking about back to school has certainly been a walk down memory lane. I hope you will come back later in the week when I will pack your lunch box with all kinds of goodies including a few cookies for you to enjoy!  Do you remember who was on your lunch box?  I had a Raggedy Ann and Andy lunch box one year.

Crazy Plates the Menu

Trying to narrow down to a single menu was once again a challenge.  I had selected a recipe for spring rolls,  as I had never made them before.  (I have eaten many but never made them), once I decided this was going to be the first course the rest of the menu flowed together and I ended up with an Asian themed meal.

Just a warning in case you have never looked at the Crazy Plates cookbook,  all the names of the recipes are a play on words which makes for some quirky names on the dishes.

I started with "Jerry Springrolls" that were quick and easy to make,  The sauce is yummy - I was eating it by the spoonful!

I love wonton soup and there was recipe in Crazy Plates so a second appetizer was in order! 

"Obi Wonton Kenobi" with simple to make wontons, reviled any restaurant version, with great umani flavour without being too salty.

For the main course I chose "Pod's Pad Thai" with "Chicken on a Stick" (though I took the chicken off the stick for the picture).   The chicken required an overnight marinade before hitting the grill but the Pad Thai could be prepared in a short period of time.

Dessert reminded me of family potlucks -light, lemony and luscious these lemon squares lived up to their name "Jollygood Squares" 

Another tasty week of great finds -  these recipes will certainly be made again at my house. There are many more recipes marked to make from Crazy Plates but it is time to select next weeks cookbook from my shelf.