Fruit cakes are synonymous with Christmas and ever since my mom sent me Carol Field’s ‘The Italian Baker’ I’ve had my eye on the ‘festive’ breads section. There are a number of recipes for holiday sweet breads in it, including…fruit breads. While thumbing through it the other day I came across a fruit filled bread recipe from Genoa: pan del marinaio, or sailor’s bread. I don’t think it is particularly a Christmas bread but it looked to be a nice twist on the traditional fruit cake.Continue reading “A Twist on Fruit Cake: Pan del Marinaio (Sailor’s bread)”
Christmas Cookie: Lemon Squares
There is not much time left to get your Christmas baking in. I’ve been churning out my regulars this week but I wanted to add a new one to the rotation: lemon squares. They are pretty popular any time of the year but I think they’re great around Christmas since they are a bit lighter than my normal Christmas cookies. Lemon squares also provide a nice citrusy contrast to all of the chocolate and gingerbread cookies you’ll find on most cookie platters. I brought some to the office the other day and received a lot of nice compliments on them!Continue reading “Christmas Cookie: Lemon Squares”
Filetto: Fennel Pollen Cured Pork Tenderloin (Mini-Lonza)
When we’ve traveled in Spain (and France and Italy for that matter) I’ve always been awestruck by the different kinds of cured meats I see in the markets. There’s no grinding and stuffing, in fact the process for curing whole muscles is relatively simple and they are very easy ‘starter’ projects for the budding home charcuterist. Basically you salt the meat, cure it for a period of time, rinse off the cure and then hang to age and dry in your meat curing refrigerator. Hang on you say, a WHAT…? Yeah that’s right, we’re kicking things up a notch going into 2014.Continue reading “Filetto: Fennel Pollen Cured Pork Tenderloin (Mini-Lonza)”
Happy Thanksgiving! One Last Bite, Homemade Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving! Pumpkin pie has always been my favorite Thanksgiving dessert, ever since I was a little kid. As I was making this the other day I was reminded how quickly pumpkin pie can be put together. The dough takes about 2 minutes to make and 20 to chill. In that amount of time you can have the filling all prepared and still have time for a cup of coffee. I know a lot of people buy pies but there’s nothing like baking your own.Continue reading “Happy Thanksgiving! One Last Bite, Homemade Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving”
Some Tips on Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for the First Time
So this is it! This is the year you’re not dealing with all the hassle of traveling and will be making Thanksgiving dinner for yourself and a few friends. Good for you! Despite all the drama you’ve witnessed throughout your life surrounding Thanksgiving dinner it’s really not terribly difficult to prepare if you’re sensible. If you decide there has to be 5 different types of potatoes and all on the table by noon then yes, there will be drama. But for the most part you’ll be able to pull it all off without too much stress if you prep correctly. This year will make it six Thanksgiving dinners I’ve made so here are some thoughts, ramblings, or tips on how I go about it.Continue reading “Some Tips on Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for the First Time”
Guancialini – Homemade Cured Pork Cheeks
Things have slowed down a bit work-wise and as you may have noticed I’ve been doing some adventurous stuff lately. One experiment I was eager to try was curing some pork cheeks into guanciale. It’s been on my ‘to-do’ list but I always kept forgetting to ask about pork cheeks when in a butcher shop. Well, I remembered, but instead of whole cheeks I ended up with a package of pork cheek meat. So instead of gunaciale, I ended up with guancialini! That’s improv Italian for mini-gunaciale.Continue reading “Guancialini – Homemade Cured Pork Cheeks”
Rabbit in Mustard Sauce (ou en Francais, Lapin à la Moutarde)
Wednesday nights are reserved as date night for Cheryl and me. Most of the time we go out for dinner but occasionally she lets me cook a ‘fancy’ mid-week one for her. The whole point is to spend some quiet time together while trying something new. I’m pretty sure the idea for rabbit came up while we were in a butcher shop (What’s that? Rabbit. Can you cook it? Sure). So, when I was in my favorite butcher shop last week I picked one up. While I was pretty confident I could successfully cook rabbit I still needed to figure out how to present it, and present it well enough for date night.Continue reading “Rabbit in Mustard Sauce (ou en Francais, Lapin à la Moutarde)”
Creamy Polenta and Mushrooms
We love polenta and during the fall and winter months I like to add it to dinners in place of pasta, rice, or potatoes. It’s a perfect side dish which pairs well with roasted or braised meats, especially ones with sauces and/or gravies. Depending on how much liquid you add when cooking, polenta can be either cake-like or porridge-like. The cake-like style is great for grilling in the summer but I think we prefer the loose, creamy style of polenta, especially when it’s colder.Continue reading “Creamy Polenta and Mushrooms”
Roast Chicken – An essential dish for anyone
I make roast chicken fairly often so I was a little shocked to see I hadn’t published a roast chicken post. Roast chicken is something everyone has eaten in their lives and most everyone is familiar with the basics of cooking one. Continue reading “Roast Chicken – An essential dish for anyone”
Soup Time: Manhattan Clam Chowder
It’s cold and damp out there. Soup weather. Now, soup is not that complicated to make so don’t be scared of making it from scratch. I hadn’t made any in a while (because it was summer) and since Cheryl and I sampled some really good chowder in Seattle last weekend I decided to make a pot of Manhattan Clam Chowder to warm us up this week.Continue reading “Soup Time: Manhattan Clam Chowder”
The Roaming GastroGnome 