Italian cooking school - Day three

Time to gaze out the window at the antics of the neighbourhood squirrel; only when the Chef wasn't looking.
Day three proved to be an easier day for us; we would be challenged with green polenta. We started by blanching the rapini, squeezing all the water out of the leafy greens, and then chopping them up.
Six, yes six, garlic cloves are browned in olive oil to which is added some hot pepper flakes.
Add two cups of water to the pot.
Add the chopped rapini to the pot and bring to a boil. While stirring add cornmeal to the green mixture, about a cup, and keep stirring until good and thick.
Pour the green polenta into a bowl and let cool.
Can be eaten at room temperature, chilled, or fried with a little olive oil until brown and crispy. This is the real polenta, not the yellow roll from the supermarket.

Italian cooking school - Day two

We prepare ourselves for another gruelling day in the kitchen; this time we load up on oatmeal and toast slathered with a plum-huckleberry jam made by our friend from Haida Gwai.

This is our reward today but first we must make the sauce.
The leftover ground pork from the raviolis is made into meatballs and slowly browned in olive oil.
Once they are done, we add a turkey neck and onions to the pot.
Crushed tomatoes, chicken broth, and salt to taste. The meatballs are put back into the pot along with some hard-boiled eggs. Left to simmer for at least two hours.
While the sauce is cooking, we cut up some tomatoes with lots of oregano and make a little pizza.
While the pizza is baking, we fry up some sweet red peppers.
And then we fry up some jalapenos too because not everyone likes sweet. But these turn out to be sweet and great tasting. A tasty addition to the fresh egg noodles with meatballs.
So far so good, but do we have the stamina to meet all the challenges that our Chef throws at us? Will we win the coveted Sauce Spattered Wooden Spoon or will we go home empty-handed? Tune in tomorrow for Day three.

Italian cooking school - Day one

Up at the break of dawn, fortified with a quick shot of tongue-searing espresso,
or a foamy, egg-rich zabaglione we don aprons and gather in the kitchen.
Our first assignment is pasta. We quickly roll out dozens of sheets of the dough, flour them and leave them to dry for just a few minutes.
First we make ravioli. Two different fillings. One is ricotta and cabbage.
The second filling is ground pork mixed with lots of parsley, garlic, and cheese.
The little pockets are easy to make and are quickly frozen.
Our next lesson: penne. These were remarkably easy to make; a square of pasta rolled around a wooden spoon.
We had lots of dough left over so we made pappardelle using the pizza cutter.
Having survived the heat in the kitchen, we were rewarded with a bowl of perfect ravioli paired with a wonderful tomato sauce.
Ravioli and jalapenos! Perfect!

Lots of snowflakes

'Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake.'

- Sir Francis Bacon-

I'm back

First of all, a big thank you to Marisa of Quilt Otaku blog for having such a fun giveaway which I won. And here is the package that was waiting for me when I got home today. Thanks again, Marisa!
And besides the wonderful package, I also enjoyed a very tasty homecoming meal - roasted chicken, roasted broccoli, buttery mashed sweet potatoes, and homemade cranberry sauce. Thank you, Mr.Cowboy!

Goodbye pancakes

This morning the wind has died down and there are fluffy clouds scattered across the blue. I made pancakes for breakfast, these are usually reserved for Sunday mornings but seeing as I am heading north into the snow I thought it would be a nice treat before I got on the road.

Button block

I had something like writer's block except for me it was button block. The vintage box was primed and ready to go. Hundreds of buttons for me to choose from all sorted by colour and type. But I could not picture in my mind what the box was going to look like. I have a pretty good idea about the inside; a mini quilt made with a mixture of fabrics and in one corner, a cupped ceramic hand (Japanese) perfect for holding rings.
Then after a day of not thinking about the box or buttons, I realized that I was thinking about the process too much. I've done this so many times that I was fighting it thinking I had to do something totally different and outrageous. But when something is good and it works, why fight it? All I had to do was remind myself of what I do; I take a box and I cover it with buttons.