Sweet Tooth

Good evening and a belated Happy Thanksgiving to all!! I apologize for not updating at all over my Thanksgiving break, but you would be surprised in how little time there is to cook during a 10 day break. Especially when most of it consists of quality time on my couch, with my dog, and a crossword puzzle book. It was a MUCH needed break, and I DID get to cook a bit. I made a chocolate pudding pie for the holiday all from scratch (crust and filling!). Compared to last year's soupy mess that I called a banana cream pie, this year was much more successful and the pudding filling actually set.

And now, on to tonight! I made my fourth dessert from Everyday Italian tonight, and it too was a success. I am now about halfway through the "Everyday Fruit" section of the desserts chapter after making Cantaloupe, Strawberries, and Grapes with White Wine and Mint. After typing that, I'm now realizing I can hardly call what I made that name. It was more like Peaches and Raspberries with Grape Juice and Basil. Allow me to explain...

For starters, I live on a dry campus and am not of age to buy or consume alcohol. Therefore, the white wine aspect was right out. Instead, I used some white grape juice (I'm sure this is not remotely the same as white wine, but you take what you can get). I boiled this along with some sugar till it was dissolved.

Next, the fruit. Unfortunately, the fruit required for this recipe (aside from the grapes which I didn't think to buy while grocery shopping at home this weekend) is no longer in season. This didn't break my heart when it came to the cantaloupe, because I"m really not a big fan (to me, it tastes like what I would imagine nail polish remover would taste like. Not that I would know). As for the strawberries, I could have easily bought some frozen ones, but I already had some frozen raspberries, so I didn't really see a point in buying anything more. To replace the cantaloupe, I used some frozen peaches. Thankfully, in her introduction to this recipe, Giada gives us college cooks (or any cooks in general) permission to substitute any fruit we like. IN FACT, she even states that this recipe is good for using up leftover fruit.

I combined these two frozen fruits after thawing them and draining the majority of the liquids that resulted. Once the sugar and juice mixture had boiled for about two minutes, I removed it from the heat. At this point, I was supposed to add some chopped fresh mint. Well, I didn't have any mint (I use it so infrequently that buying it fresh just doesn't make sense). I remembered seeing many of Giada's dessert recipes on TV using basil, so I figured a bit of that would be a good enough replacement. I added this to the hot mixture, then poured it all over the fruit. You are then supposed to chill the dessert in the fridge for about two to eight hours. I did not want to wait. I think I gave it about 15 minutes.

Going into this dessert, I wasn't particularly "jazzed" about it because I'm more of a chocolate lover when it comes to sweets. The richer, the better. I really only get excited about a fruit dessert if there's some sort of flaky crust or crumble with it. However, this dessert was actually quite good! It wasn't overly sweet and the peaches and raspberries worked well together. The basil got lost amongst all the other ingredients, and I could see where the mint would fit in nicely, but it didn't detract from the dish at all.

The picture of the dessert in Giada's book is really pretty with the sugar mixture crystal clear and the whole thing in a pretty little glass. Lucky for Giada, she didn't have to use frozen fruit that creates some pink juice and she had pretty little glasses at her disposal. I must say though, the colors in mine above are nice. In Giada's words, "look at how pretty that is!"

And there you have it! I've been through Everyday Italian FOUR TIMES! I'm definitely not sick of this project yet. I look forward to cooking each recipe and sharing my stories every single time. I start from the beginning once again on Thursday with my take on another seafood appetiser. Stay tuned :)

Remind Yourself That It's OK Not To Be Perfect...

According to my Dove chocolate wrapper, improvisation is just fine. Good to know considering this is another recipe that probably turned out much differently than intended. Pictured above is MY take on Peaches Stuffed with Amaretti Cookies. This is my third recipe from "Everyday Dolci" and the "Everyday Fruit" section.

The first part of the recipe is making some whipped cream. As I went to reach for my whipping cream, I saw that it went bad around mid-October, so I opted for my dessert without the whipped topping.

Next problem: certain produce is not available year-round. Peaches included. Therefore, the frozen food industry came to my rescue once again. I used frozen peaches but, of course, they don't come as whole fruits. They're sliced, so I sort of had to form the slices of peaches into a faux-peach half. This wasn't too big of a deal until I attempted to transfer them to a plate. More on that later.

Next problem: amaretti cookies aren't exactly all that common in all stores. Therefore, my mother was crafty and found these 100 calorie packs of Stella D'oro breakfast cookies. They may not have the same almond taste, but they did the job just fine.

All right. So I started this recipe by first crushing up my cookies after preheating the toaster oven. The recipe said to use a food processor, but I really didn't feel like using my chopper. The piercing sound of it just didn't seem like a great idea today. Instead, I broke the cookies up by hand and crushed them into crumbs. They were surprisingly fragile for such hard cookies.

I then measured out about 1 1/2 cups of the now thawed peaches (after getting into a wrestling match with the bag that refused to open) and arranged them onto the baking sheet. I spooned the crumbs on top of the peaches (in the recipe, you're supposed to heap them into the hollowed center of the peach. This would have been a MUCH easier task), dabbed a bit of butter on top of each heap, and sprinkled some sugar on top. Then into the toaster oven they went for about 25 minutes.

Once the peaches were done, I used a spatula to transfer them to a plate. They didn't really stay together too well and the crumbs kind of went all over the place. Had I put a full-blown pat of butter on top of each, I may not have had this issue, but the extra points really weren't worth it to me.

Despite my many alterations to the recipe, the dessert was delicious. The cookies toasted up and actually took on a nuttier flavor and the natural sugars of the peaches caramelized them and made them sweeter. I think my version of these would have been even better over some good vanilla bean ice cream, but I didn't have any and, again, didn't feel like using the WW points.

This marks my third full cycle through Everyday Italian! I've made soo many good recipes and I'm always looking ahead to see what's in store next :) Only about 22 more cycles to go! Check back on Thursday when I start from Chapter One once again!

Goin' to the Country, Gonna Eat A Lot of Peaches...

And we're back!!! Thank goodness, I was going crazy without my biweekly dosage of Giada's wonderful recipes. Tonight, I made Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cheese which was my second dessert out of Everyday Italian. Thanks to our well-stocked and...I guess furnished?...kitchen, it went off without a hitch.

There is no supplementary picture to accompany this recipe in the cookbook, so ever since seeing it in there, I had a specific idea of what I thought it was supposed to look like. I've mentioned before that I sometimes look the recipes up on foodnetwork.com in order to see how long it takes to make the recipe, and that is what I did today. The recipe on there did come with a picture, and it was completely different from my idea. I had this picture of peaches topped with the cheese just open on a plate. The real recipe puts the peaches in glasses of wine. Needless to say, I decided these would be peaches with my own spin and stuck to my original idea.

To start, you mix some sugar with some lemon juice and set it aside. You're also supposed to add brandy to the mixture, but seeing as I live on a dry campus and am not legally able to consume alcohol myself, this just wasn't going to happen. I didn't think it would really take anything away from the recipe anyway.

Next, I had to fire up the grill! Mr. Foreman's innovation came in handy once again and this time, I even remembered to position to drip tray beneath the slanted grill (of course, this time time there were maybe two drops in the entire tray by the time I was finished). As the grill heated, I had to pit and quarter my peach. Sounds easy, right? Oh no, of course not. I cut the peach all the way around to the pit and then desperately tried to rip the two halves apart. After much effort and my hands being thoroughly covered in juice, I decided to cut it in half again to finish the quarters. It was just as difficult to pull apart. I then decided to try to maneuver the knife against the pit and sort of pry each piece off of it. This was actually successful, though bits of peach were still left on the pit. I'm sure Giada doesn't do it perfectly either. Or maybe she does. It really doesn't matter, these are peaches done my way.

After the peach ordeal I sprayed the grill with some EVOO spray (whoever thought to make this spray is a fat-free genius. I save so much by spraying food and cooking surfaces lightly with this rather than tossing it or covering it in oil). I then placed each peach quarter on the grill. Since it is slanted to "grill" the fat off of food (yes, it is the "lean, mean, fat grillin' machine"), the peaches slid right to the edge of the grill. This didn't bother me since they were secure and not falling off. The peaches are supposed to be cooked for about five minutes or until they're heated through and just brown. Well, mine weren't getting quite warm enough for me, so I decided that they needed to be in the center of the grill where most of the heat probably was. This took some skill with my tongs in order to place the peach quarters just right so they wouldn't slid down to the bottom. I was able to do this, but then was scared to even breathe for fear of the slightest change in atmosphere making them fall.

I unplugged the grill when the peaches were just brown and nice and warm, then transferred them to a small plate. The recipe tells you to put them in the bowl with the sugar and lemon juice mixture, but I drizzled that on top of the peaches instead. I should also mention that I did use some of the wine necessary for the recipe, cooking wine that is. I put it in the sugar lemon mixture just to get the full taste of the recipe, but not enough to get drunk off my peaches. I then let the peaches sit and absorb the mixture.

While this was happening, I combined the mascarpone cheese with some vanilla extract. I've seen this cheese used numerous times on Food Network, but had never tried it and had no idea what it was supposed to taste like. Well, it is an extremely mild cheese that has the slightest hint of that tell tale cheese taste. It takes on the flavor of whatever you add to it and gives it that nice, creamy texture. The vanilla cheese that I created was money.

I then dolloped some of the cheese onto each peach quarter and sprinkled some cinnamon on top (my own personal touch, not Giada's). I absolutely LOVE any type of grilled or roasted fruit so the peaches were great. The cheese was really good with it and was the perfect accent since the natural flavors of the grilled peaches still stood out. I'm guessing that this would be even better if I had used a REAL grill, but not only is one not available to me, but it was far too cold out today to be grilling (unless you were tailgating at a Bills game like my family probably was without me today. It's fine. I'm over it).

So I have officially gone through each chapter of the cookbook TWICE now and feel I'm really starting to improve my cooking! I'm picking up tips and tricks each time I try a new recipe and have made some delicious creations. I had Shrimp Scampi while out to dinner the other night (since I am an official shrimp eater now) and I think mine was actually better! I thought moments like that only happened when I tried things while out that my mom made better. I start back at Chapter One again on Thursday with some White Bean Dip with Pita Chips. Delish!

P.S. Happy One Year Anniversary Steph & Doug!