off to italy

Tomorrow, my family and I are leaving for Italy. We are spending a few days in Venice and a week in Florence. We also plan on taking day trips to Siena and Pisa. I sure am excited for the food! Look forward to some food-related pictures on the 13th.

salami bread

We often make this quick and easy bread when we casually entertain. It's always gone by the end of the day. Simply roll out frozen pizza dough, place slices of salami and provolone on the dough, and roll it up to form a baguette-like shape. Press seams closed, and brush with egg wash. Bake in a 375 degree oven until golden, about 30 minutes.

corn salad

This corn salad is a perfect side dish at a summer barbecue. The recipe comes from marthastewart.com.

Chop 1/2 pound bacon and cook in a saute pan until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels. Saute chopped whites of one bunch scallions in bacon fat, until tender. Add kernels of 4 to 5 ears of fresh corn, and saute until cooked through but still crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Add chopped scallion greens, and toss.

owl cupcakes

I guess I’ve just been in a cupcake crazy mood lately. It probably has something to do with the fact that my mom recently bought me a great cupcake decorating book, called Hello Cupcake. While I doubt that I will ever use the book for cake or frosting recipes, I will definitely continue to use it for inspiration when decorating. One of my favorite ideas in the book is for the owl cupcakes. Oreos, m&ms, and colored frosting are used to create these little guys. I did make two changes: I minimized the amount of piped frosting by using halved Mini Oreos for the ears and I substituted a yellow m&m turned on its side for the beak. Each one is full of character and a lot of fun!

pasta with sausage and roasted tomatoes

This pasta is a favorite at my house. It's bursting with flavor.

Pasta with Sausage and Roasted Tomatoes

2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 c. olive oil, divided
1 to 1 1/2 lbs. Italian sausage, casings removed
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. mezze rigatoni
1/3 c. grated Parmesan
1/4 c. fresh basil, chiffonade

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Toss tomatoes with 4 tbs. olive oil in a single layer in a glass baking dish. Roast in oven for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 tbs. olive oil in saute pan over medium-high heat. Brown sausage, adding garlic to pan for last minute of cooking time.

Cook pasta in salted boiling water; drain.

Combine roasted tomatoes, sausage, garlic, pasta, Parmesan, and basil in a bowl.

chocolate chip kiss cookies

My mom went to a party a month ago, where she tried these little cookies. They are a tasty variation of Peanut Butter Kiss Blossoms. For this cookie, Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie dough is baked in mini muffin tins, and, while they are still warm, a Hershey Kiss is stuck in the middle.

Straight from the oven, almost all cookies are soft, chewy, and slightly gooey. As they cool, though, they often lose these favorable characteristics. What’s great about these cookies is that they retain their fresh-baked qualities.

Chocolate Chip Kiss Cookies
From Nestle Tollhouse

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks butter, room temperature
3/4 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
12 oz. semisweet mini chocolate chips
9 oz. bag of Hershey Kisses

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Cream butter and sugars, and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time. Stir in mini chocolate chips.

Use small scoop (roughly one tablespoon) to drop cookie dough into mini muffin tins. Bake until light golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool for 3 minutes. Press Hershey Kiss in the middle of each cookie, while still in tin. Use small offset spatula to lift cookies out of tin. Cool completely on wire racks.

roasted red potatoes

These roasted potatoes are crispy on the outside and have great flavor from the herbs.

Roasted Red Potatoes

2 1/2 lbs. red potatoes, quartered
4 to 6 tbs. olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbs. dried rosemary
4 garlic cloves, minced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place potatoes in large saucepan, and cover with enough cold water to cover. Salt water, cover, and bring to a boil for 5 to 8 minutes. Drain, and place potatoes on baking sheet.

Toss potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, and garlic. Bake until browned and crisp, 30 to 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

mock apple pie

This past week, I read Jeffrey Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything. In “Pies from Paradise,” he writes a little about Mock Apple Pie, a recipe formerly featured on the back of the Ritz Crackers box that makes an apple-y tasting dessert without using any apples. The idea of an apple-less apple pie intrigued me to such a degree that I decided to try it out. I didn’t want to waste an enormous amount of ingredients, so I divided the recipe in half and made it in a small baking dish.

The developers of the recipe realized that the apples in apple pie do not impart much flavor and that the prominent taste is from the cinnamon and lemon juice. The Ritz Crackers, then, replace the apples: when baked, they absorb sugar syrup and become soft and mushy, like baked apples. And the aforementioned cinnamon and lemon juice give the dessert its apple pie flavor.

Steingarten was generally impressed by the Mock Apple Pie's ability to deceive, but I was not so convinced. While the cinnamon and lemon juice did remind me somewhat of apple pie, the Ritz Crackers were hardly apple-like in texture. Oh well. It was a fun little experiment, nonetheless.

bacon and egg potato salad

Happy 4th of July! To accompany our hot dogs and hamburgers, I made Barefoot Contessa’s Bacon and Egg Potato Salad. It is creamy and delicious, but, surprisingly, it does not contain any mayonnaise. Instead, its creaminess comes from a dijon-based dressing.

Note: I substituted 1 to 2 tsp. dried parsley and 1/2 finely diced sauteed onion for scallions.

Potato Salad with Bacon and Eggs
From Barefoot Contessa

2 lbs. medium-small red-skinned potatoes, scrubbed
Kosher salt
1/2 lb. bacon
1 tbs. dijon mustard
2 tbs. vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c. olive oil
1/3 c. dry white wine
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
5 scallions, sliced

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place bacon on a baking rack over a foil-lined baking sheet, and bake for 20 minutes, until crisp. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.

Place the potatoes in a pot, and cover them with water by at least 1 inch. Add 1 tbs. salt, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until potatoes are just barely tender. Drain the potatoes and place a dish towel over the hot potatoes, allowing them to steam for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk together the dijon mustard, vinegar, 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, and 1 tsp. pepper. While whisking, slowly add the olive oil and set aside.

As soon as the potatoes can be handled, cut them into 1-inch chunks and place them in a large bowl. Immediately add the wine to the potatoes and toss them carefully, allowing the potatoes to absorb the wine. Add the dressing to the potatoes and mix carefully. Coarsely chop the hard-boiled eggs, crumble the bacon, and add them along with the scallions to the potatoes, tossing to combine. Season to taste and serve warm or at room temperature.

pluot

My mom came home from the supermarket with a surprise for me: a pluot! The plum-apricot hybrid exhibits more plum-like physical characteristics, but its apricot genes are apparent in its taste; these little fruits are intensely sweet.