Pasta alla Nicola

This recipe is one from Zia Amalia in Italy. I had a hard time deciphering the Italian to get to the technique and ingredients in this dish. Here is how I gathered this dish is made. Onion, Carrots and celery sauted in butter. This is a great start, how can one go wrong with that. I threw in some oregano from the garden, the recipe called for parsley, but I forgot to pick some up. After letting the veggies soften, I added sausages with their casing removed. And cooked until the meat was cooked through. I pureed the mixture adding some chicken stock, alfredo sauce (recipe called for panna, which is an Italian cream sauce) and parmesan cheese.
I mixed the sauce with a pound of rigatoni. This was the result.

This was my lunch today. Not a bad lunch. The flavor was amazing. It just ended up a little mushy. Lacking texture. Flavor yes, texture not really. My father suggested that I puree the veggies, but not the sausage. That would add texture, but still give the effect of the pureed sauce. All in all yummy.

Italian Love Cake

Italian Love Cake ... I thought this cake just had a wonderful name and it made an obvious choice for today. I need some love. Joey was up early.

This simple to prepare cake was a great choice. Here are the basics, you take yellow cake mix, prepare per the package directions and pour it into a 9 by 13 pyrex. Then you mix ricotta with sugar, vanilla and eggs and pour on top. When all is said and done, you end up with something that looks like this.

After baking for an hour and 20 minutes, this was the result.

I was not really sure what to expect when I cut into the cake. It was rather interesting, the ricotta became more of a filling, settling to the middle of the cake.


I brought this to lunch with my parents today. They were just thrilled by my cooking project and have volunteered to be my taste testers any time. They also had some commentary about the dish.

It was a lovely cake. It was just a little heavy. The slice I picture here, really is about two servings. I think that I need to cut the ricotta mixture by 25% may be even half. The flavor was absolutely lovely. I could have been sitting in a little cafe in Rome sipping some espresso with this cake.

My Inheritance

After my grandmother passed away earlier this year, my mother came upon this box. She handed it to me and said "Joanna, this is your inheritance, use it wisely."

Oh what could this simple box contain, well just as it says on the front recipes. They were all the recipes that my grandmother made on a regular basis, those from her family, as well as those she tore out from the newspaper or magazines and those that she traded with neighbors and friends.

The contents were written on random bit of paper, index card, tear outs from the paper. It drove me nuts to look through these bits of paper. So I decided to organize them and eventually create a family cookbook. As I was looking through, I realized that there were 5 versions of some recipes and that means recipe testing. Trying to figure out what are the correct portions to create the best version of the dish.

So I plan to write about each of the recipes here as I test them.

My first trial is lemon sorbet. I thought I would start with something easy and I wanted to test out the new ice cream maker my mother in law gave us.

So here is the result of the lemon sorbet. I picked about 5 lemons from our tree, yes it is finally producing lemons. I zested and juiced them. I mixed that with a little simple syrup. And threw it in the ice cream maker. After 40 minutes this is what I came up with:


My first impression of it was that it tasted like the frozen lemonade you get at the ball park. It is fluffy and light. I simply loved the lemon tartness. I think I need to adjust the recipe to either reduce or eliminate the lemon zest. I think it detracted from the texture. But recipe is a keeper.

Garden in Bloom

We are well on our way to a great harvest in our garden. I have never really been a successful gardener before now. My husband often jokes that I have a black thumb. After this summer I would say that it is turning brown and well on its way to green.

Last summer we successfully grew two of the cutest little pumpkins. This year, I think we are going to win the prize for the most sincere pumpkin patch and will be visited by the great pumpkin on Halloween night. We have one lovely pumpkin that is growing up a storm. I would say this one might be a carveable one. It has hints of orange popping through.

Our second pumpkin is not quite so perfect. It seems that no matter how many pumpkin seeds I plant and how many plants grow, I end up with two pumpkins. I have hope for this one. It is a long way off from Halloween, so it has a long time to grow as big as its fellow pumpkin.




I also planted some heirloom tomatoes. I am just waiting for these cherry tomatoes to vine ripen. I have been harvesting tomatoes here and there and they are wonderful in salads and on sandwiches.
For my birthday, my husband built me this planter box. It houses my herbs. I also planted cucumbers, radishes and green onions for my second harvest. This fall, I am going to channel my heritage and try my hand at growing garlic. I have high hopes for this planter box.
Now, what is a little boy supposed to do while mommy is tending to his garden, well I suppose he could go for a drive. He calls out "GOODBYE MOM" and off he goes. Climbing in his cozy coupe, really and truly the best gift he has ever gotten. I will be sad when he out grows this toy.

HI MOM! HI DAD!

Joey loves to yell Hi Mom, Hi Dad! Here is telling us just that. He is off to gandma's with his backpack and football.
Joey

Stanley Cup

So here we are walking through Curry Village in Yosemite and what to our wondering eyes do we find. None other than the Stanley Cup. That is exactly what we expected to find on our Yosemite adventure. And to top it all off, they took a free picture with it. What an interesting find.

I love Summer!

I absolutely love summer. The food is awesome. We have a vegetable garden in our back yard. Our little plot is a work horse. The zucchini is tender and sweet. The squash is fab. And the tomatoes are unlike anything that you can find in the stores. We also have pumpkins growing. Pictures are forth coming. This is the harvest for the day. I cannot wait to make dinner tomorrow night.