Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

It is now technically Christmas day, and like the child I am at heart, I'm too excited to sleep (feel free to imagine that being said like the kid on the Disney commercials). I apologize for again not having a picture of my this post's dish, but by the time I realized I hadn't taken a picture, it was too late. I did have the opportunity to share this dish with others which is one of the main reasons I cook. Not only do I love eating food, I love being able to share it with others and see people enjoy something that I created. Cooking also makes me feel productive. But enough about my love for cooking. It's now time for me to explain the easiest dish of my project so far.

I made another dessert on Wednesday called Marinated Strawberries over Pound Cake. I used a store-bought pound cake seeing as Giada did not include a recipe for one. If there isn't a recipe for it, I do not feel obligated to make it. All I had to do was take two cups of strawberries and have them sit at room temperature in 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar for 20 minutes, then add some sugar to sweeten it up. Then you spoon it over a slice of pound cake and top it with some whipped cream (there were instructions for whipped cream, but I will admit to taking a shortcut here and just using Cool Whip, sorry!).

I thought this was a pretty unconventional combinations and wasn't sure what to expect from it. It turns out that marinating strawberries in vinegar makes them quite tart on their own, but on top of pound cake with some whipped topping, it's delicious and balanced. It was incredibly easy and painless as well so I highly recommend it if you're in need of something simple.

Surprisingly, I didn't do much cooking today for Christmas Eve. My mom took on most of the duties today. I did make some ricotta cheese cookies though the other day and used a REAL vanilla bean for the first time ever. I felt like a real chef splitting the bean and scraping all the vanilla guts out. I even got fancy and created a glaze for the cookies but heating some powdered sugar, milk, Karo syrup, and the "shells" of the vanilla beans (I don't know if they're actually considered shells, but I'm not too sure what else to call them).

That's all I have for right now. I start the next cycle through the book sometime next week unless I get super ambitious on Saturday, but odds are I will be maxed out on everything foo-related by then. Check back soon for more though!

P.S. I got a juicer for Christmas so adding FRESH lemon to recipes will be exponentially easier now. I also received another GINORMOUS cookbook so once I'm through with my Everyday Italian project, this blog shall live on!! Feel free to thank Caitlin for all this good news :)