I’ve found out that if I don’t blog something, I’ll never find it again. Twitter feeds disappear, facebook disappears (seriously, if it’s not NOW NOW NOW, can you search for it??) So here’s today’s google-find (from a disreputable source which I don’t frequent, but the copy-pasted links will give it away):

Classic Italian cocktail: Bellini

The Bellini was created in 1948 by Giuseppi Cipriani at Harry’s Bar in Venice. He named it after 15th century artist Giovanni Bellini and used a local tradition of macerating white peaches in wine to create one of the most popular cocktails on this list. Many recipes use champagne, but instead why not make it the Italian way using Italian Prosecco as a delicious budget alternative?

Ingredients
1 oz. white peach puree (if you can’t find peach puree, substitute peach schnapps)
3 oz. chilled Prosecco
1 dash of maraschino cherry juice (for color)

Method
Pour the puree into a chilled champagne glass and top up with the Prosecco. Stir until mixed and add a dash of the maraschino liqueur until the drink takes on a pinkish hue. Serve.

Classic Italian cocktail: Americano

First created by Gaspare Campari in the mid 1800s, this mixture of sweet vermouth, bitter liqueur and club soda became known by its current name because of its popularity among American visitors to Milan in the early 1900s.

Ingredients
1 oz. sweet vermouth
1 oz. Campari liqueur
Chilled club soda

Method
Pour the spirits into a chilled Collins glass with ice cubes, stir and garnish with an orange slice or a twist of lemon peel.

Classic Italian cocktail: Sgroppino

If the Negroni is the only way to begin an Italian meal, the Sgroppino is the ideal way to finish it. A blend of Prosecco, lemon sorbet and vodka topped off with chopped mint, its refreshing taste is perfect for cleansing the palate.

Ingredients
1 oz. vodka
2 tbsp lemon sorbet
Prosecco
Freshly chopped mint

Method
Place the sorbet and vodka in a chilled champagne flute and stir gently. Top with Prosecco and garnish with freshly chopped mint

Classic Italian cocktail: Bicicletta

Apparently named after elderly men who would swerve all over the road on their way home after a few too many drinks at the bar, the Bicicletta is another classy way to begin a meal, this time making a long drink from the local wines and spirits.

Ingredients
2 oz. Campari liqueur
2 oz. dry white wine (Pinot Grigio would be perfect)
Club soda

Method
Pour the spirits into a tall glass with ice cubes and top with club soda. Garnish with a slice of lemon.

When our housemate moved back in, we all were helping her decide what to keep out in the kitchen, and what to put back. Among these items was a 3-pack of springform cheesecake pans. She had never used them, and I myself had a similar 3-pack. We tried to come up with ideas about how we could possibly ever use all 6 pans.. and so arose, comically, a Chicago-pizza and cheesecake night, subtitled, “How much cheese can you eat in one night!” As my wife finished a module for school yesterday, we decided to have 5 friends over, and feed 8 with 2 pizzas and 2 cheesecakes. It turned out beyond my expectations, and surprised the locals with how tall a pizza could be made!

First up, Thursday-night cheesecake making..
I knew a good recipe was to be found with my mother-in-law, since she gave me the pans in the first place! I planned on making either apple or blueberry cheesecake, and I figured the other ought have chocolate chips with an Oreo crust, but it didn’t hit me until late afternoon that I should/could add some Bailey’s to it! Turns out my genius idea isn’t new (in fact it’s marketed in restaurants!), and a quick google search led me to The Delicious Life blog. Most Baileys cheesecakes called for between 1/4-1/2 of Baileys. I opted for the lower end, and, like the blog said, a Tablespoon of instant coffee, which I dissolved in the microwaved Baileys. But unlike the basic sugar-infused recipe @ the delicious life, I used the mother-in-law’s (exceptionaly simple) recipe:

An Oreo crust used about 1 1/2 cups blended into bits (I picked out & ate the bigger unbroken chunks!), pressed in with a straight-edge pint-glass, and much to my delight, the oreos successfully stuck even half-way up the side! Fancy!

The “filling” of the cheesecake:
3 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese (2 regular and 1 neufchatel)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (Standard medium-large can, not the iddy-biddy ones, I used the store-brand)
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup frozen semisweet mini chocolate chips.. which ended up being THROWN HARD into the cheesecake (instead of mixed, which would havec worked too).

And of course the 1/3c Baileys+ dissolved-in instant coffee.

All that is mixed-in, starting with the cream cheese, eggs (one at a time), vanilla+baileys+coffee. I was really worried because it was a tad soupier than the previously-made blueberry cheesecake (graham-crust, no chocolate, just 1c blended up blueberries dropped in overtop the filling in the pan.) Oh, and I used a 9 or 10″ pan, and wrapped it in aluminum foil around the sides & 1.5″ over the top-edge to bake it without burning it, @ 325 for about an hour, +-15 minutes.

I ended up staying up til 1am babying the Bailey’s cake, since it was significantly soupy, I even placed a stock-pot overtop the whole thing outside the oven to make sure it was baked-through, without burning it! But after 18hours in the fridge, it turned out perfectly creamy!

The Goal:

Now, onto the pizza!! 4 hours beforehand, we started the dough. But at the last minute, I swapped recipes, from the food-network Mark Malnati recipe, which failed to include a sufficient quantity of cornmeal (as well as requiring waaaaay too much flour!) to Unos/Due’s recipe here. Oh look, Uno’s turned out perfect! We did end up using bread flour though. Again, we used the springform pan (after the punch-down, second rise) we rolled it out to 6″ larger than the 11″ pan. It turned out to be about 1/4-1/2″ thick, depending on how contracted it decided to be. A quick lift with 4 hands, and in the oiled pan she went.. and quickly contracted down the sides of the pan!! So we had to have it overhang and set for a minute before I added 3/4c (2.5oz really) of pre-shredded, dry “Italian-blend cheese” (asiago, parm & romano) to the bottom of the pan as a base. Then, in true Giordano’s style Chicago stuffed-pizza, the meat & veg goes on the bottom! I sliced up a turkey sausage and fried it with a variety of italian spices (ground pepper, oregano, dried mustard & garlic to name a few). I also tossed in some thin dry-baked ham chunks. Ground hamburger or pepperoni would have worked too, but the sausage tasted perfect. Onions overtop the meat, with 2c of fresh grated mozzerella and 1c of fresh grated romano (again!). We threw some chopped basil & garlic overtop the cheese (could also have gone under the cheese) and threw some chopped/minced tomatoes overtop! In the oven @ 475 for 45minutes, 430 for another 30 minutes, and it was ready to go!  (We also did a veg pizza too, which was baked for a little less, and that crust was 100% absolutely perfect!).

When they were ready, the cheese was mostly dry (the veg was a little soupier), and had sunk down pretty low, almost too low. I could have used more asiago or romano. The flopped-over crust also needed to be cut before being thrown in the oven.. I had to cut & crack it off just to remove the springform rim! At this point we garnered the attention of our friends who said, “THAT’s a pizza! It looks like a cake!” We slid the pizza off onto a plate, and cut with a serrated knife into 8 pieces & served it up. Most people ate 2, some only 1, since they were saving room for the amazing cheesecake.

Thanks everyone who braved the “experiment!”

Pardon my terrible italian if that’s not quite right. But doesn’t it sound gourmet? Which it is. So, the Baked Shrimp, here’s my starting inspiration. Here’s what I did: about 15 large shrimp, caught in Savannah and given to me by my kind mother. Peeled them, then cut them up into 1/2 inch pieces, which defies most things I know about fine food, but poor Mark won’t eat big shrimp chunks. Whatever. Preheat oven to 350. Then put them in an ovenproof dish w/ 1TBS olive oil, a sprinkling of kosher salt, pepper, and dried oregano. Chop up 1/2 of a zucchinni, 1/4 sweet onion, 3 cloves garlic, and 3 TB fresh italian parsley. Put all those veggies in a pan with olive oil, and saute till the onions are soft, stirring regularly. Cut up 1.5 tomatoes, then blend them. You’re going to need small chunks and juice. While that’s going, get started on the 4 cheese sauce. I used white cheddar, fontina, provolone, and parmesan.  1TB butter with 1TB flour, make a roux, then add 1 to 1.5 cup heavy cream or milk. Add as much cheese as you need to make it thick (about 1/4 cup of each to start). I keep my sauce on low-med heat the whole time.

Alright, now that cheese sauce is moving along, take those sauteed veggies and put them on top of the shrimp, then the blended tomato bits/sauce. Put some fresh basil and goat cheese on top, then stir it all up, put in your now warm oven for 10 min. Now you can get your pasta going, since it’ll take as long as the baked shrimp.

Now you can continue with the cheese sauce. Make sure you haven’t neglected stirring it. Once it’s thick, i like to add about 1 TB of white wine (of whatever type you were already planning on drinking with the meal), and a little nutmeg doesn’t hurt, then turn it to low while you wait for everything else to get ready.

Ok, so now 10 minutes have elapsed, the pasta’s ready, get your shrimp out of the oven. For plating, put the pasta on first, then the cheese sauce, then spoon out some of the wonderfully tomatoey shrimp-veggie goodness. Looks fairly pretty plus it’s one of the tastiest things i’ve ever made. Serves 2, plus a lil’ bit o’ leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch. Buon appetito!

Food blog is back. No pictures this time, but let your imagination take it away.

Chilled salmon: 1 frozen salmon fillet, defrost for 1 hr. 1 clove chopped garlic, 3 chopped fresh basil leaves, 1tsp fresh chopped lavender, 1 tsp fresh chopped oregano, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp fresh cracked pepper. Put all that on top of the salmon, bake for 30 min at 290 degrees. Once done, chill for 1 to 1.5 hrs.

Gnocchi: got it from here… so enjoy. I’ll do that sauce some other time, but for today’s 100 F and above temperatures, I stuck with some grated white cheddar, chopped basil, oregano, lavender, and green onions. All fresh from the garden I might add.

Plating: scoop that gnocchi out straight from the pot into a bowl.  Put cheese and herbs on top. Split salmon down the middle and chop into 1 in pieces, put on top the gnocchi. Serves 2. Really was a great, light, not-to-warm summer afternoon meal. We had pinot grigio with it, and it really went great with the lavender, lemon, and white cheddar flavors. Buen provecho!

Before we got married, Mark and I decided that since travel is one of our favorite activities, we should schedule it into our lives once a year.  Ideally, we’d like: 1) A two-of-us trip 2) A “family” trip if we have kids eventually… 3) A “Hers” trip, and 4) A “His” trip. So i got my solo trip this week. Really more due to budget there was only enough money for one to go…and i thought i deserved a little trip/break after my boards. So i headed off with my carry-on to NOLA. Stayed with my friend Quinn in her dorm apartment… within walking distance to the French Quarter. Here’s my itinerary:

Day 0: Land in New Orleans airport and Dr Q picks me up, and we go eat sushi and ice cream with her friends.

Day 1: Walk to St Charles streetcar. Ride the streetcar to uptown (reminds me of Savannah, actually). Find the Farmer’s market. I’d heard that during the month of June, some chefs from Emeril’s restaurants (I think he has 3 places in town…) would be there featuring their seasonal cuisine. So I figured that for my budget, this was the best way to get some authentic Emeril food. As an amateur chef, I have to say that Emeril’s recipes always turn out well. I don’t necessarily like the fact that he has a “food empire” now, but his 3 restaurants in the city are all different with their unique ambiance and cusine. So he’s got some cred and respect.  All I can say is this: the dish i tried- Goat Cheese Cake w/ Tomato Coulis- (0r something like that) was very nice, cooling, and honestly, a really great late breakfast.  Ok, so it starts raining a bit while I’m there, so I pull out my handy-dandy rain jacket and the baseball cap Mark let me borrow and found a covered spot to enjoy my goat cheese… had Panko bread crumbs on top, not to mention that really light and slightly sweet tomato sauce, and some mint and chives on the side (yeah i ate them too).

Goat Cheese Breakfast

Alright so it kinda let up raining, so I started to head back to the streetcar. Of course it started POURING down rain. Finally made it back to the streetcar line… put in my dollar… didn’t work. The conductor said “do you have a dry dollar, ma’am because it will not be receptive.” Fortunately I did find a more dry one in my purse, so I didn’t get stranded there. So rode all the way back downtown, wringing out my skirt and pouring out my shoes in the process. Since i was already wet, I decided to keep sightseeing. Went to the Spanish plaza, rode a ferry across the Mississippi River (and back), walked a bit thru the Quarter and found a Po-boy place (playing both afternoon world cup group games!) with some awesome sweet tea for lunch.

Po'Boy Lunch

Headed back to the apartment, showered, changed to dry clothes, then out again with Quinn and friends for Mexican food and frozen margaritas.  Then out for hookah with Q. Good times catching up with an old friend.

Day 2: Much drier. Head to the Quarter, see the voodoo museum, then to Cafe du Monde for Beignets and Cafe au Lait. Very enjoyable. Also some quality jazz musicians on the corner-one man on trumpet and singing, the other on snare drum. Then to the cathedral. Really nice… not as impressive as Europe…or even Savannah or New York… but SO well air-conditioned. Just sat there awhile and rested.

Cafe au Lait and Beignets

Then went off looking to make a reservation for cooking school the next morning. At the first place, which I’d heard of before, I was wait-listed. So i decided to try my luck at a new place (with questionable existence according to google). It was located in the mall…which made me a bit skeptical… but as soon as I saw their classroom overlooking the Mississippi and their really lovely, expensive kitchen and their menu… Jambalaya, Shrimp Etoufee, Bananas Foster, Pralines… sold.  I’m only the 5th person to make a reservation for the class. yay! Then found some red beans and rice before retreating to the air-conditioned apartment. Out to a pub for a bite with Q and friends again, then Q and I head back to the French Quarter in hunt of a Hurricane. Bourbon street at night is pretty hilarious. Not scary, just comedically seedy with all the over-the-top clubs. Alright, so take a turn off Bourbon at St. Peters and find Pat O’Brien’s on the right. Reminded me of a pub Mark and I visited in Nottingham (reportedly the oldest still in existence) – new little rooms everywhere you turned (except in England it was caves, not a 200 year old house). So anyway we got a Hurricane (meh, vodka and Kool-aid?) and enjoyed the dueling-piano-bar-show for awhile.

Day 3: Cooking class. Really my favorite part of visiting the city. 2 chefs, 12 students. Both chefs were “creole” or from the city. One was of italian heritage, the other french. They both had great recipes from their Cajun (country) friends and relatives. I learned that Jambalaya was based on paella, and that it should be “herby,” not “spicy”.

Jambalaya

Really good dried meat they put in there. Then Etoufee.. nice and creamy. Then Bananas Foster. Then they offered us seconds! If you ever get a chance to take a cooking class in NOLA, check out Crescent City Cooks. They’re great. Then I walked around the French Market, and for some reason got more food- Muffaletta at Central Grocery. I usually don’t like salami, but with all that cheese and olives… surprisingly good Then off to the airport. Good thing I ate so much cuz my flight was delayed and i didn’t have time to stop for dinner since I was running thru the Atlanta airport. Made it home around midnight. Mark and Axel definitely missed me. (yeah yeah I missed them too, especially Mark)

"Muff-a-lotta"

Back in 7th grade, we all (boys & girls) had to take a semester of wood-shop and a semester of home-ec. The latter was a funny class, where we were tested on dry &  fluid measure conversions and the like. But what I really look back upon with confusion is how we were hardly 13, and were supposed to literally memorize an entire routine of baking-method and then apply them in 1950′s model kitchens. They were like-unto oversized Barbie-doll house-kitchens, and we, mere children, were playing as life-sized dolls. But to backtrack out of material context and into my point, we were taught on blackboards how a muffin was supposed to turn out and why: not too high of a peak, nor too low, and certainly no hollow columns, built through a bad proportion of flour and baking powder.

We all laughed at all this: “What if I like cone-topped muffins? They look better!” Likewise, we all knew we would be lucky if they didn’t burn, if they tasted even remotely like food, and . All these betray a shift in food-preparation: that we were clueless, that there were “cooking standards” and that our relation to them was disbelief. While this relationship lead us as a class to not want to listen in class, but I would say 13year olds lacked the abstract mind and memorizing power to handle full cooking technique-in memory. There’s such a difference between being told how to make muffins and doing it. Sure there are tonnes of tv-cooking shows out there for adults, but notice how many there are for 10-14 year olds? What? None? A 10yo can follow step-by-step, but to think that a group of 4 goofy 13 year olds can be class-taught how to make a muffin and then go and execute is a tad much. But we did what we could. But it wasn’t ‘highly effective’.

I think a better way might have been to include smaller steps, or making sure that previous cooking background was evenly distributed. Either way, I’m sure it was all about funding, that they couldn’t afford another teaching-assistant to help us learn to bake. It’s all a silly affair in my memory. But I did crack my first egg there, into however many million bits.

So this one’s for all the temporary imports like myself who, despite the reasons/excuses, still want to put their glass somewhere besides a landfill.

I just returned from a such a trip goal-fulfilled. & there’s a few things you should know:

1. If you’re away from this blog-post, call this guy: 803.441.4331. I forget his name, but he’s the info-source.
2. The site is located at 61 clay pit rd. It’s a dead end, after a sign which says “North Augusta Materials Reclamation” (or something like that)
   1. Keep to the right as you enter & go up the hill marked “Trucks”. Keep to the right s’more as you go around the building counter-clockwise and you’ll see 3 piles of glass.
   2. If you take the map directions below, note that Holly is just a cut-across to avoid weirdness. And Carolina Springs & Womarth are the same road, so you’ll go under Atomic.
3. I’m a fan of pre-sorting my glass. Especially in the summer, you don’t have to stand out in the heat, just dump & drive. They, like most recyclers, sort into 3 categories:
   1. brown
   2. green/yellow/blue: anywhere from a Bacardi rum bottle to a deep-blue bottle, as well as the yellow which most Chardonnays come in.
   3. clear
4. Finally, The times: Mon-Thurs: 7am-5:30pm.

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The food-blog has been overtaken by the man-of-the-house tonight. While Carmen was off babysitting for friends, I was cooking up some goodness. Recently, our supply of cheese had overgrown our fondness (a miracle!), and we hadn’t used our flour tortillas yet. That can only mean one thing: quesadillas. With chicken. With red pepper, garlic and ground coriander. And rum. Yes, Rum. Yum! Tossed the rum in with the oil at a 50/50 concentration.

I honestly had no idea what I was doing.. I mean, I know how to cook, and quesadillas are dirt-simple. But I usually underdevelop the flavors. But the (yes, still on-sale and in-fridge) New Zealand white cheddar worked wonderfully with the rum. ‘Twas such a smooth transition between the flavors. The pepper added the low-volume spice I can handle, and the coriander? I need to use more next time. And I like my quesadillas thick & hearty like my burgers, so I dumped tomato & steamed rice inside the tortilla too, post-pan-warming. Topped off with a Costa Rican beer and/or a lime+vodka+sprite mixed drink, and we’re good. And guess what? No cilantro!!

And now, a story: I’ve been quesadilla’ing it up since the early bachelor days, and I consistently wind up using my fingers to lift the just-flipped tortilla edge to shove-back-in the fallen out bits. My old psychology housemate once remarked (at my ah! ooh! dangit! phrases) “How many times can the monkey hurt himself before he learns..” Thanks Pence.

Poulet a la moutard- Chicken with Dijon Mustard. I finally picked up a bottle of dijon at my last grocery stop and i’ve been aching to try it since. I think i was originally planning to use it with steak… but today Mark mentioned that it’d be good with chicken. Well then, poulet a la moutard it shall be!

I did have to run up to the grocery store for a couple of things. We needed white wine. I wanted some fancy-shmancy French wine, but Mark insisted on an $8 Argentine Torrontes. And i’m glad he did, it was cheaper, slightly tart, and barely sweet. I liked it. Went well with the mushrooms somehow….

anyways.

I made my french bread, i think i’ve mentioned it before. But i sauteed a clove of garlic and about 2 Tbsp fresh tarragon in 2Tbsp olive oil, and added to the mix… then add water, knead with your well-oiled hands, and let it rise! Voila. It tasted very nice, light fluffy. I only did a half recipe, but was still able to make a traditional French-bread loaf and a boule. Yum.

Now for the appetizer… Carmelized Endives. This was Mark’s first experience with endives, so i thought i’d try to overshadow the bitterness by sauteeing and some sugar… stumbled upon this recipe for carmelized endives. Didn’t have chicken broth but it worked anyway. Mark didn’t like it much, but then again he doesn’t like many sauteed vegetables. But i thought it was great. Went well with the bread and some grated New Zealand white cheddar (yes i still have a crush on this cheese. it’s so good.).

Carmelized Endives with Tarragon French Bread

Alright main course. Poulet a la moutard. REALLY good. I did add about 1/2 cup chopped white onion to when the mushrooms went in-worked well.  Side- my mashed potatoes. 5 russet potatoes, peel, chop, boil till soft. Drain, then put back in pot. 1/4 cup sour cream, 2 Tbsp butter, and 1/4 cup milk or cream. Mash. Stir. Salt and pepper to taste (i like fine fresh cracked pepper…). Second side- green beans. Get fresh ones. Chop the ends off, boil for 7 min or until al dente. 1/2 Tbsp butter, 1/2 tsp salt. Stir. Serve with white wine.

poulet a la moutard

closeup du poulet

Bon apetit!

This one started with a hair-brained idea. What have i got in the pantry/fridge, and what do I want? Well, we have Prosecco, so it has to be Italian.  i have cheese.. chicken.. hm we had rice last night.. ah! Israeli couscous! Can i make risotto with that?

Apparently I can. I adapted 2 recipes, one by Emeril, and another from winosandfoodies.com.

So here’s what I did. Chicken-frozen. Put it in a 9×9 (i usually cover the bottom with aluminum foil to avoid stickyness, but it’s not necessary). Cover with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Rub with 2Tbsp ground oregano, 1/2 tsp powdered mustard, sprinkle a bit of rosemary and garlic salt on top. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes-ish, or until your meat thermometer tells ya it’s above 165 or so. (i know it might say poultry 180, but I’ve read that 180 is actually too much, it starts getting dry above 170).

For Risotto, get a saucepan, and put 1-2 TB olive oil in there, and put it on med-high. Sautee 2TB garlic and 1/2 cup of onion for like 5 minutes. Now put in 2 cups of water, kosher salt and some ground black pepper, and let it get to a boil. Put in 1 cup Israeli couscous, and reduce to simmer. Every 2 minutes, stir it about so it doesn’t stick to the bottom or to itself. After about 8 minutes, add 1/4 cup chopped fresh tomato and 1/3 cup heavy cream. Stir. At 10 minutes, add 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (I used about 1/2 cup parm and 1/4 cup New Zealand cheddar). Note: i had a Romano rind left over, so i put that in there at the beginning of the boiling. If you put any kind of rind in there, it does flavor it up a little more, but make sure you scoop it out at the 8 minute mark.  Stir and simmer another 2 minutes. Now top it off with some scallions (and maybe a bit more parm), and serve!

I also had some creamed corn that mom had given me last time we were down at the farm. Quite a delicacy, cut, cooked, and frozen by Grandma last summer.

I would be amiss were I not to mention the lovely Prosecco we had with dinner. Lunetta’s is pretty good – not too dry or sweet, young and tangy, but with enough sugar to wash down easy. As the inspiration for this lovely meal, Prosecco, I salute you.