Sunday, January 22, 2012

What a weekend!

First, the exciting news. Found a new salt crock at my favourite thrift store. We had been using a salt box bought many years ago on my first visit to Ikea. It was time for a new one.




Mr. Deer paid us a visit on Saturday afternoon. He really likes our hedge and he cleans up any seeds that fall from the birdfeeder.
For a special Saturday night dinner I decided to try a recipe from Mario Batali's new book called Molto Batali: simple family meals from my home to yours. I chose to recreate Polpettona Ripiena. We love this dish but it is anything but simple. You basically layer spinach, carrots, onions, mortadella, and cheese on a base of sausage, beef, breadcrumbs, grated romano, eggs, milk, and seasonings. You roll the meat up like a jelly roll, put it in a roasting pan, drizzle olive oil over the top and pour in a cup of water. Bake for one hour. The aroma that greets you when you open the oven door will have you thanking Mario for this recipe. I even made my own breadcrumbs for this polpettona, using sourdough bread from Craig's Bakery in Chase. It was all worth it!
I had such luck with Mario I decided to keep going and try another new recipe. This one is for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from one of my favourite magazines - Cowboys and Indians, the July 2010 issue. These cookies are really good. I'm not sure if it's the bread flour or all the oats that make these so scrumptious. This is definitely a keeper!
But I didn't stop with the cookies. The April 2010 issue of Bon Appetit has a recipe for New York-Style Crumb Cake and this, again, is a winner. This is quite the combination; a tender sour cream rich cake topped with a thick layer of cinnamon-scented streusel. Now that is a breakfast treat!

1 comment:

barbara@sparrowavenue said...

omg! I'm starving! all of it looks so good although I'd have to modify it 'cause I can't do cheese anymore :(

is Mr. Deer a mule deer?