My Introduction to Cooking and BLTS

I am currently listening to the audiobook Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasin Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat by Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas. It is one of those books that makes my commute seem very short. I was hoping for a traffic jam so I could listen to more. The book off starts with Grant Achatz's introduction to cooking at the age of five. That got me thinking about when was my introduction to cooking. I would have to say it was when I was five if not younger. And it was with the Sunday Pizza. On Sundays my mom would make a big bowl of pizza dough  (I wish I had that recipe). The dough would rise in the dining room near the heat vent covered with blankets. Later in the afternoon, usualIy after watching an old movie on TV, I would help my mom roll out the dough and spread the tomatoes and herbs on the top of the pies. Her's were the best pizzas. I think I will make pizza this weekend!

Now on to today.... For dinner tonight we had BLT Paninis. Yum! The bacon was in the freezer, keeping with this week's freezer food theme. All I had to pick up was an overpriced tomato!

And I had some soup in the freezer, Mixed Vegetable and Farro Soup.

I think I need to do some cooking this weekend...

Thank You William Cullen

Who? The man who invented the freezer. If not for this person I have no idea what we would be eating this week.

This past weekend did not present any time to do cooking for the week. Saturday cleaning out my Dad's and Sunday at my sister's for Easter Dinner. What to do!

Monday was easy. We had leftover steak from our dinner at Friend's and Company on Saturday night, don't think I blogged about that. I picked up salad stuff so we had a nice Steak Salad for dinner.
Our favorite dressing...

Last night was from the freezer. Minestrone with Pork. This was amazing the first time we had it. It was just as delicious if not more delicious last night.

Tonight we had meat sauce. The note on the zip lock bag said, "Meat Sauce with Too Much Meat."

Seriously? Too much meat? Who has ever heard of such a thing. Beef shanks, sausage and ground beef. It was a perfect mid week meal.

Happy Easter

 Another delicious Easter dinner at my sister's house. 

Enjoy the photos. We certainly enjoyed the food!

  

And in case there was not enough pie...

Shrimp Fra Diavolo, by request

 

When Chris asked what I was making for dinner tonight he suggested Shrimp Fra Diavolo. I was planning on making Shrimp with Polenta but I remembered how good the Fra Diavolo was the last time I made it. Dinner was so delicious. And so damn easy to prepare. The sauce was spicy and the flavors were amazing. Only problem it was not easy not to over eat. Not a bad end of Lent meal!

And did you notice the dish? It was my mom's. She got it in Italy on one of my parent's trips. Glad I have it now.

And I did some Easter baking tonight - the Rice Pie!

This is my favorite Easter Pie. But I did just learn that there is a recipe out there for my father's sister's Ricotta Pie. I have no recipes from his side of the family. I hope to acquire the pie recipe!

The rice pie recipe is from Food Blogga. I have been making it for a couple of years. Just a delicious pie. Can not wait until Sunday!

I'd Like To Welcome Back To Our Stage...

 

We liked this so much the first time I had to make this again.

Meat Pie and Caesar Salad

After yesterday's amazing meal I had something lighter in mind for dinner.
There are so many dishes and meals that my mom made that have such strong memories attached to them. The Meat Pie has to be at the top of the list. I use to go over to my parent's house, after I had moved out, and helped my mom make these pies. We usually made them on Holy Thursday. Even with the two of us it was a lot of work. But it was fun. We would end up laughing at the silliest things, probably from exhaustion.
This year the pies came out exceptionally good. I used a low sodium ham. The first bite I could taste the difference. Not sure if anyone else noticed.

Palm Sunday

Delicious dinner at my sister's house -

Mixed Vegetable and Farro Soup

Do you read Food and Wine magazine? This month Mario Batali was the guest editor. And so far it is the best issue I have recieved!

I found this recipe on the Food and Wine site. Perfect for Lent. And perfect because I had all the ingredients in the house! And also perfect for tomorrow night. Yes soup on a Saturday night. Why? Because I will be making Meat Pies!


Mixed Vegetable and Farro Soup

Ingredients -
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 medium leek, white and pale green parts only, thinly sliced
1 cup farro or wheat berries
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 quarts water
One 15-ounce can borlotti or pinto beans, drained and rinsed
2 large carrots, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise 1/4 inch thick
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons thinly sliced basil

Method -
In an enameled cast-iron casserole, heat the oil. Add the celery, onion and leek and cook over moderately high heat, stirring a few times, until softened, 5 minutes. Add the farro and tomato paste and cook, stirring, until the grains are coated and shiny, 30 seconds. Add 1 quart of the water and the beans and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Add the carrots and the remaining 1 quart of water. Cover and cook over low heat until the carrots are tender, 30 minutes. Add the peas, cover and cook until tender, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, top with the basil.

Deconstructed Bacon Wrapped Polpettone In Red Wine Tomato Sauce

Deconstructed? Yeah. First mistake was that I bought bacon instead of pancetta. Not sure why I made that choice at the store. But not only did I buy bacon, I bought thick sliced bacon. I tried to wrap the meatballs with those thick slabs of bacon but it was not happening. Sigh. I ended up unwrapping the meatballs and browning the bacon and adding that to the sauce! Complaints... no because this was quite good. The aroma in the house was fantastic. I think I even saw the cats smiling.
Oh you want the recipe. Click here and plan on spending some time at this site.

Vegetable and Lentil Stuffed Peppers

A needed break from meat tonight. Well kind of. The peppers were stuffed with Aborio Rice and Lentils. I had the lentils in the freezer from the last batch of lentil soup we had. I sauteed some chopped onion, zucchini and yellow squash. Seasoned the filling with the usual - salt, pepper, thyme, parsley and crushed red pepper. I mixed the rice, lentils and veggies, adding some Parmesan Cheese and then stuffed the peppers.

Now the meat part was the sauce I used to top the peppers. It was sauce I had in the freezer from the Veal  Ossobuco we had a while back. The sauce was sooooo good. Only complaint or should I say what I would do differently next time is not using green peppers. Granted they were less expensive than the red, yellow or orange, but I just really don't like the taste. Too green peppery!

And I know today is the Feast of St. Joseph but I did not have a Zeppole for two reasons. First it is something I always brought over to my Dad's and it made me sad to thing of eating it without him. And secondly, I am having blood work done in the morning and that would certainly screw everything up!