Today is the 16th birthday of my beautiful, talented, smart and wonderful son, Dashiell. He loves chocolate so I wanted to bake a cake for him made with chocolate and lots of love. The best recipe that I’ve found for chocolate cake if by Nigella Lawson in her “Nigella Bites” cookbook. Check it out. I made the cake last night and it does have a lot of ingrediants but it is fairly easy. All of the steps make perfect sense. The cake came out beautiful and it is so moist and loaded with flavor without the heavy chocolate that some chocolate cakes have. The icing is the cat’s meow, so silky and smooth and decadent. Here’s to Dashiell on his special day! Love MOM.
Archive for September, 2009
Happy Birthday Dashiell!
September 25th, 2009Cabrito & Fatoush
September 13th, 2009
Cabrito, kid, chevon, are all names for baby goat. And whatever you want to call it I don’t eat it or cook it. BUT our friend Mike McIntosh and his lovely wife Julie Wickett invited us over Sunday afternoon for a bbq and that is what they were serving. Jesse and Dashiell were up for it so off we went. I tasted a small bite of the cabrito and it was delicious. I know I just said that I don’t eat baby goats but I had to try it because Mike is so sweet. Mike smoked it for hours in a special smoker that you add water to so the meat was moist and succulant. Our friend Tim made the tastiest pinto beans I’ve ever had. He did not skimp on the salt pork and they were really a meal in themselves. Julie made a lovely peach sorbet for dessert that hit the spot on this summer evening. I made fatoush, a Lebonese bread salad. Fatoush can be made with lettuce or not and adding garbanzo beans works too. I did add the lettuce this time, however, I have made it in the past with just the tomatoes, cucumbers and spring onions.
Fatoush
- 1/2 head of romaine lettuce
- 1 container of grape tomatoes
- 2 cucumbers
- 4 spring onions
- 1/2 cup of mint
- 1/2 cup of flat leaf parsley
- 1/2 cup of olive oil
- 1/4 cup of lemon juice
- salt
- pepper
- pita bread, cut into triangles
Cut all of the vegetables into bite size pieces, chop the mint and parsley and add to the salad. Mix the olive oil and lemon juice together and season with salt and pepper. Toss with the vegetables. Toast the pita bread in the oven and toss with the salad.
Book Club & Oven Roasted Tomatoes
September 6th, 2009
Once a month I get together with 10 or so brilliant, witty and beautiful womem to discuss a book that we’ve read. We all bring wine and or an appetizer and some of the most delicious desserts I’ve ever tasted. This month it’s at my house so I’m serving an olive plate and roma tomatoes. I baked the tomatoes slowly for hours and then added some buffalo mozzerella and fresh basil. This is a good recipe for store bought tomatoes that don’t always have a lot of flavor. It’s kind of like making them into sun dried tomatoes but in the oven.
Tomatoes
- 10 roma tomatoes, cut in half
- Olive oil, about 2 tablespoons
- 1/4 pound of fresh buffallo mozzerella
Bake for 3 hours at 325 degrees or a little longer depending on your oven. You want the tomatoes to collapse and be all gushy. Let them cool and sprinkle with salt and pepper. You could then use oregano, or fresh basil or thyme. I like dried oregano because that is the way my mom and Aunt Angie would eat garden tomatoes in New York and the taste has stayed with me. FYI–I tried to lessen the three hour cooking process by turning on the confection oven and it dried the tomatoes out and made them like sun-dried. So if you want them to be like that; then go for the confection oven.
Basil (Ocimum basilicum)
September 2nd, 2009
With Labor Day around the corner my basil garden is almost finished. It lasted through the summer and actually seemed to thrive in the heat as long as I remembered to water it. To me biting into basil is summer. It’s fresh and green and kind of spicy and so versitile. There is pesto and fresh basil torn and tossed in a salad. Basil added to tomato sauce or basil on grilled fish or chicken and on and on…It’s also good for you with a lot of nutrients, especially Vitamin K! And it is an anti-inflammatory, too. Hooray for basil!! This is my favorite pesto recipe.
Pesto
2 cups of basil 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/3 cup pine nuts 2 medium sized garlic cloves, minced Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Combine the basil and pine nuts in a food processor, pulse and then add the garlic. When combined slowly add the olive oil. Add the cheese and combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Makes 1 cup.
