When I joined the Foodbuzz Blogging Community I had to fill out a foodie profile and I was asked where my favourite restaurant in the entire world was located.  This proves to be a very daunting task whether you are a world traveller or just trying to think back over the thousand of restaurant meals that you’ve likely enjoyed in your lifetime.

After much deliberation I choose Cumpa Cosismo in Ravello Italy.  It is said to have been Jacqueline Onassis’ favourite restaurant when she vacationed in the area which I understand was frequently. 

The cafe is a little off the beaten path, that is to say not off of the main square.  But the reason why it was hard to find is that it is known simply as Nettie’s to the locals, after notorious Chef/owner Netta Butone.  Her traditional recipes are simple and exquisite.  Nettie knows her stuff-she personally brings the laden platters to the table and then you don’t see her again until she presents you with the cheque.  

Every once in a while, I attempt to recreate her anti-pasta which is a selection of local vegetables.  Hers was cauliflower, diced zucchini, swiss chard, peppers, eggplant a bit of soft cheese. 

For mine,  I separately saute or grill a number of favourites in extra virgin olive (use your best stuff here) and one or two in black truffle oil for variety.

For a couple, I’ll add freshly chopped garlic or fresh basil -but just use what you have on hand and keep it very simple. 

A tip I learned about the eggplant, is that after lightly grilling you stack it, so that the steam in the veggie will continue the cooking process.  To serve, I take each eggplant slice and roll it into a tube. The platter can be served hot if you are entertaining at home or cold if you are taking it to a friend’s. 

Kath’s quote:  “I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation.”-Madame Benoit
 

Bon apetito!

By Guest Blogger Laura

One of winter’s first snowy Saturdays and as luck would have it, we planned the perfect welcoming event  – a fondue party to celebrate a friend’s birthday.  There are so many different ways to enjoy this congenial way of eating but we have our favourite plan and usually stick with it for the most part.  We use two pots of boiling oil – many people use chicken or beef broth which is terrific too – but we generally go for a combination of canola and peanut oil.    The most exciting part of the fondue for me is the creation and presentation of a wide variety of dipping sauces that allow guests to try new flavours and combinations that they wouldn’t normally try.  Each and every bite can be different from the one before and it’s that experimenting that makes this such a celebration of eating. 

Early in the day I prepare a hearty plateful of each of prime rib steak, boneless pork, boneless chicken breast and peeled and deveined shrimp.  My husband prepares the chocolate fountain and cleans strawberries, cuts bananas, peels mandarin oranges and cuts up sponge cake. 

 I wanted to be sure to have a good variety of choices.  I picked up some store bought sauces…sweet and sour, BBQ, seafood sauce and then had tons of fun preparing the homemades. 

Horseradish Cream – 1 cup sour cream, 3 T horseradish, 2 t lemon juice, 2 green onions, ¼ t worchestershire, salt & pepper

Herbed garlic butter – 1 C butter, 2 T lemon juice, 1 t fines herbes, 2 cloves garlic

Peanut sauce – 1 cup vegetable broth, ½ c peanut butter, 3 T shallots, 1 t worchestershire, 1 t sugar – cooked on stove and allowed to thicken and cool

Honey Mustard – ½ c mayo, 2 T honey, 2 T grainy mustard, salt & a pinch of cayenne

Curry Mango – ½ c unflavoured yogurt, ½ c mayo, ½ c mango chutney, 1 T lime juice, 2 t curry powder, 1 T chopped red onion, dash of cayenne

The surprising hit was one I just invented at the last minute.  I used a small jar of green jalapeno jelly and mixed it with ½ c mayo.  Then I chopped in some fresh red chile pepper and green jalapeno pepper primarily to add some colour because the sauce wasn’t looking that attractive.  Even the guests who don’t usually go for food with too much heat loved this combination of sweet and spicy. 

Our friends brought along a bowl of cheese fondue which we simply heated in the microwave and put on a warmer and then enjoyed with chunks of French bread.  They also contributed mushrooms, peppers and pearl onions along with a beer batter that worked really well in the fondue pots. 

I’m not sure there is a better way to enjoy wonderful dinner conversations than with good friends sharing  a fondue.

“When you ask one friend to dine,
Give him you best wine!
When you ask two,
The second best will do!”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

invite someone to warm up at your table

Do you know the song entitled Seasons of Love from the play/movie Rent?  The lyrics are about quantifying the passing of time: 

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In my family we recently reached a milestone.  We celebrated the 18th birthday of the thirteenth and youngest grandchild in our family.  We had been celebrating these birthdays for 20 years and in all there were 234 of them.  A person much better at math (my husband or one of my children) could calculate exactly how many birthday candles had been blown out over the years.   

Our family has grown to be so large that we have to rent a room to accommodate us all for dinner.  The special efforts put into this last soiree were handled beautifully by Sister #2 and her husband-complete with video tributes and trivia games.  And is always the case-there was a lot of love poured into the preparation of the food. 

Sister #3 is the sister that is a formally trained cook.  I am said to be an “inventive” cook and Sister #2 is an “indulgent” cook.  For this dinner she prepared four different kinds of pasta including two lasagnas that were to die for.  This recipe is appropriately entitle “Death to Dieters Chicken Lasagna” as it is made with…..Hollandaise sauce!  Can you see how she came about her title?

3 c fresh mushrooms, sliced

2 c onions, chopped

3 c hollandaise sauce (2 packets if not making from scratch)

1 lb. pakage lasagna noodles, cooked

2 lbs. chicken breast, cooked & thinly sliced

1 t basil

1 t oregano

3 c mozzarella, shredded

1 c parmesan, grated

Saute mushrooms & onions until soft.  Using 2 9″x13″ pans, spread a small amount of hollandaise on the bottom & place a layer of noodles over top, then cover with 1/2 of the chicken .  Top with 1/2 of the mushroom and onion mixture, then 1/2 of the remaining hollandaise and sprinkle with 1/2 of the basil & oregano.  Top this with 1/2 of the mozzarella and Parmesan.  Repeat the layers ending with the cheese.  Cook uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or until hot and bubbly.  Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.  Serve with a salad with a tart dressing to offset the richness.  Serves 20-24. 

Kath’s quote:  “You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.”-Julia Child

Today is my Mom’s 84th birthday!

A version of this recipe has been posted once before, but I had not prepared it myself. I decided to pull the recipe out when D & I were hosting our monthly young families’ group.  I thought that the kids might enjoy it with some veggies and dip and the adults with heaps of salad.  

Now you know that I love my carbs but the combination of fat and carbs seemed a little too indulgent in January especially knowing that I will be on the beach again in a month (travelling-not here in MB).  So I used no fat cottage cheese and sour cream.  The original recipe calls for Velveeta which I never have in my house so I substituted 250 g of Imperial Cheddar Cheese that was a gift to us over the holidays.  I also used a shredded sharp cheddar because I sense that if you use a sharper cheese, you get much more of the taste with less of the fat. I doubled the recipe to make a lasagna for the kids assembled with us in the dining room and another for the parents attempting to have some adult time together in the living room.

1 large onion, chopped

olive oil for sauteeing

250 g Imperial cheddar cheese

500 g no fat cottage cheese

500 g no fat sour cream (thinned with 1/4 c skim milk)

500 g lasagna noodles

1 c sharp cheddar (shredded)

1 lb. bacon, crumbled and cooked until extra crisp (carefully blotted with paper towel to remove all visible grease)

5 lbs. (or more) cook potatoes with the the skin ON

Lightly grease 2 lasagna pans and set aside.  In a large pot boil potatoes until they can be easily mashed; drain.  In a frying pan, saute onions until soft.  In a large pot of boiling water, cook noodles according to package directions.  Add 1/2 onion to half of the potatoes along with the Imperial cheese, mash.  Add the other half onion to the other half of the potatoes along with the cottage cheese and mash. Pour a couple of dollops of sour cream in the bottom of lasagna pans.  Cover with a layer of noodles.

Layer more noodles over one potato mixture, top with 1/3 the sour cream.  Layer again over the other potato mixture, top with another 1/3 sour cream.  Add last layer of noodles, sour cream and top with shredded cheddar.  Cover with foil & bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until edges are bubbly when you peak under the foil.  Remove and let set for 5 minutes (very NB).  Top with crumbled bacon and serve.

Kath’s quote:  “Pray for peace and grace and spiritual food,
For wisdom and guidance, for all these are good, but don’t forget the potatoes.”-John Tyler Pettee

love illuminates

[by Guest blogger Lori]
These are, hands-down, the BEST pancakes I have ever made! What I really love about them is that they’re not cooked on a griddle or frying pan which makes them really easy to make for guests. All the prep can be done first thing in the morning, then thrown in the oven 15 minutes before you’re ready to eat.

We have an annual tradition with my college girlfriends to have a Christmas brunch together. Most years, it’s the only time we see each other all year because we have moved physically far apart. Luckily, family brings everyone nearer for the holidays.

This recipe is from Martha Stewart’s website. For 6 adults and 3 little ones, i made a triple batch (18 pancakes). That was just enough.. So, depending on what you’re serving with the, I suggest making more! I served mine with bacon, a fruit salad (melons, pineapple, blueberries and pomegranate), yogurt and granola.

Here is what you will need:

Makes 6 pancakes

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for tin, and 2 tablespoons melted
unsalted butter

5 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus more for tin

2 Granny Smith apples (about 1 pound)

1/4 cup light-brown sugar

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

3/4 cup milk

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
 

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Butter inside each muffin cup of a 6-cup nonstick jumbo muffin tin; coat with granulated sugar. Peel, core, and slice apples into 12 wedges, then cut wedges into 3 pieces. In a medium bowl, toss apples with brown sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon.

2) Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add apples and saute, turning occasionally, until caramelized, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove pan from stove; let cool 5 minutes.

3) Divide caramelized apples among prepared muffin cups. Set aside.

4) In the bowl of a food processor (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer), combine flour, salt, 5 tablespoons granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons melted butter, eggs, and milk; process for 3 minutes. (That’s a lot of sugar!  I wouldn’t normally even make a recipe with this much sugar, but hey, it’s the holidays! I’d like to attempt substituting apple sauce for some of the sugar in the future.)

5) Pour batter over apples. Transfer tin to oven; reduce heat to 400 degrees.

6) Bake until pancakes puff up, about 15 minutes. Remove tin from oven; invert onto a flat work surface. Dust with confectioners’ sugar; serve immediately. (One batch of my pancakes stuck to the pan, which made for a few ugly ones.. so be sure to do a good job greasing your pans and/or use good quality non-stick pans)

And the final result? Delicious!  I was so caught up with getting everyone fed, that I forgot to take a final photo, unfortunately. But I can assure you that these are a hit with guests.  I also forgot to mention the whip cream!.. I whipped my cream the night before and forgot it in the fridge.  The pancakes are delicious without — but I can just imagine how much better they would have been with even more sugar!! 

Kath’s quote:  “I know the look of an apple that is roasting and sizzling on the hearth on a winter’s evening, and I know the comfort that comes of eating it hot, along with some sugar and a drench of cream… I know how the nuts taken in conjunction with winter apples, cider, and doughnuts, make old people’s tales and old jokes sound fresh and crisp and enchanting.”-Mark Twain

You’ve got a friend