Rocky Road Halloween Bites!

Happy Halloween everyone. I put together some treats for my friends at work and wanted to share my mom's recipe for her Rocky Road Halloween Bites. These are really easy and quick to pull together!

You will need:
1 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 tbls of unsalted butter
12 oz of mini marshmallows
2 cups of whole roasted almonds

In a heat proof bowl combine the chocolate, milk and butter and then place this on top of a double boiler. Melt these ingredients together taking care not to burn the chocolate. In another bowl combine the marshmallows and the almonds. When the chocolate mixture is cooled, take off the heat and cool for five minutes. When cooled, pour over marshmallows and nuts. Stir this mixture incorporating all ingredients to be sure everything is coated. Spread mini cupcake liners on a tray and scoop heaping teaspoonfuls into the liners (if you have a little ice cream scoop this will work as well) and place on your serving platter. Place the candies in to the fridge for about an hour or until set. Bring to room temp to serve. Enjoy!

Panforte

I recently opened a shop on etsy.com to sell my panforte for the holiday season. For those of who don't know panforte is a very traditional Italian sweet that is typically eaten during the holidays. It is rich with fruits, spices and nuts. I remember my first taste of this delightful dessert when I was in Sienna with Joe and Lori. I had no idea what it was, but I knew I was going to fall in love when the woman behind the counter cut me a slice, handed it to me and kissed her fingers telling me to enjoy. Thinking back I can still remember the first bite of this sweet and spicy treat. It was unique and like nothing I had ever had. This was certainly not your ordinary fruitcake I remember thinking, this panforte is special. The best thing about panforte is the longer you let it stay, the better the flavors are. The last one I made, I had for 6 months in my cabinet, wrapped tight in plastic wrap it can stay for the year.

My etsy shop is still being worked on, but I will let everyone know when I am open for business!

Dinner with the girls!!

The other night I enjoyed dinner with Erica and Amanda at my place. We started with some sparkling wine and Fonduta, which is an Italian cheese dip similar to fondue made with Fontina cheese. I served it with toasted baguette and Abruzzi Salami that I warmed in the oven. Starters like this are always fun because they can be as casual or dressed up as you like. Here is my favorite recipe for Fonduta.

11 oz Fontina cheese, cut into cubes
1/3 cup milk
1 tbls unsalted butter
3 egg yolk
fresh ground black pepper

In a bowl place the milk and cheese. Leave in the fridge overnight so that some of the milk is absorbed by the cheese. In a heat resistant bowl place the butter and set this on top of a double boiler (be sure the water is not rapidly boiling and the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water). When the butter is melted add the cheese and milk. Stir constantly, when the cheese is melted and you can drag a whisk through creating strings reduce heat to low. Add the egg yolks one at a time, whisking rapidly. Whisk until the cheese is the same color. Take it off the heat and season with fresh ground black pepper. Serve with toasted bread, salami, roasted vegetables like cauliflower, fennel, potatoes. Be as creative as you like! Enjoy!

Good Morning!

I woke up today and thought what a great morning for a warm bowl of oatmeal. When I was in Quebec City I enjoyed oatmeal drizzled with Canadian Maple Syrup on most mornings. This morning I decided to make an apple, dried cranberry and raisin saute to go along with my oatmeal. Here is my recipe:

For the Oatmeal:
1 3/4 cup whole milk
pinch of salt
1 cup rolled oats (if using steel cut oats please follow manufacturer's recipe)

Bring milk and salt to just under a boil and then stir in the oats. Cook about five minutes over medium heat, stirring occassionally.

For the apple saute:
1 tbls unsalted butter
3 Macintosh apples, peeled, cored and cut 1/4"slices
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tbls sugar
pinch of salt
once around the pan with dry vermouth
once around the pan with cranberry juice or apple cider, whichever you have on hand

In a saute pan, melt the butter and add the apples. Cook for about five minutes until slightly tender. Add the cranberries, raisins, sugar, salt and spices. Let things begin to caramelize. Go once around the pan with the vermouth. If using a gas stove, you may want to move the pan away from the heat when adding the vermouth. Cook all the alcohol out, about three minutes and then add the cranberry juice. Let cook for about ten minutes. You want the apples to still have a little bite to them.
Divide the oatmeal into two bowls and top the both with the apple saute. Drizzle each with good quality maple syrup and enjoy.

New York, New York

On Wednesday, Stacy and I boarded a Bolt Bus and went down to New York city. We didn't have anything planned out except good food and maybe some shopping. First stop, Eataly in the Flatiron District. This is Mario Batali and his partners newest venture. It is an Italian market fit for any foodie. The idea of Eataly comes from Oscar Farinetti's Eataly that he opened in Turin, Italy about a year ago. Together, with Mario and crew he helped open Eataly in Manhattan and brought Italy to the US!

Stacy and I entered the building and decided to do a browse through before stopping. With our mouths open and our eyes on overdrive, we were overwhelmed and excited about all that was going on around us. Inside there is a Lavazza Cafe, panini stand, pizzeria, organic produce market, shelves upon shelves of imported goods from Italy and all the pasta you could imagine. We decided to stop in La Piazza for some cheese, cured meats and wine. The set up here is great, marble top bar height tables you stand at to enjoy your treats. We just started looking at the menu, when a waiter came over and asked if we needed help. He suggested we do a sample board which would have the most popular items on it. He set us up with plates, silverware and bread and then he was off leaving us to continue looking around. Our board of came quickly with our drinks. There was ricotta, parmesan, taleggio, fontina and gorgonzola cheese with Prosciutto Di Parma, San Daniele Ham, Speck, Mortadella and Sopressata on the board. They also brought us candied spiced lemon peel, figs and honey on another plate. This was the perfect snack. We ate and chatted as we people watched in La Piazza.

Leaving I knew I wanted to visit Eataly again and I was so happy that this idea came to New York! If you are ever in the city go visit the orange clog wearing crew at Eataly, I promise you will love it.

Eataly
200 5th Ave at 23rd st

Mom's Soup!

Tonight was the perfect night for soup and not just any soup, my mom's soup, which is the best. Growing up, Monday nights we always had soup up my grandmother's house even if it were 90 degrees outside, it was always soup on Mondays! My mother learned her soup recipe from my grandma Alda and when I say soup, I'm not talking chicken noodle. What soup is for us, is a delicious homemade broth and some kind of small pasta like tubatini or acini de pepe. At Christmas time, when I was little we used to always have this broth with homemade tortellini. Tonight, my mom put in one of my favorite little pastas, which is Stelle or star shaped pasta. It hit the spot on this cool, rainy night and I wanted to share with you our family soup recipe.

In a large pot combine:
1 lg can plum tomatoes, including the juice
2 chicken breasts with the bone and skin
6 peeled carrots, left whole
3 celery stalks, left whole
1 onion, peeled and dotted with whole cloves all around (our secret)
water to fill the pan

Put on the stove for at least 3 hours. Be sure the broth does not boil, or it will get cloudy. You just want it to simmer. Add a touch of kosher salt at the beginning. After 3 hours, taste the broth to see if it needs more seasoning. When the broth is done, cool to room temp and strain through a fine sieve (you can either break apart chicken and out in the soup or use for chicken salad). Be sure to take out the carrots and add them back to the broth, we leave them whole, but you can cut them if you choose. This broth can be used for not only soup, but also as the base for a sauce or to build a beautiful risotto. Hope you a enjoy.

Clover Food Truck

On Tuesday I had lunch with my friend Erica and we visited Clover Food Truck in Dewey Square. If you haven't checked them out, you are missing out. I had the Tomato sandwich, which had fresh tomato, lettuce, cheddar and mayo on a whole pocket style bread. Erica and I shared some Rosemary Fries and to drink I had the Concord Grape Lemonade. Lunch was delicious and their set up is something to be admired. They have someone outside the truck taking orders using some kind of device that sends the info to the kitchen. This person also handles the payment of the transaction as well. The crew on the truck move pretty fast and seem very organized, getting the food to the customers in a timely manner, which we all appreciate!! I can't wait to be able to go back again, for the chickpea fritters, they looked pretty amazing! Again, of you haven't checked out Clover, go visit them in Dewey Square Tuesday-Thursday or in Kendal Square all week. While you're in Dewy Square visit the farmer's market because it is squash and pumpkin season and there are so many fun varieties of squash out there!