Basket Cheese

I was standing at Labriola’s Italian Grocery deli counter and it’s the first time I saw Basket Cheese. I asked about it. It’s only sold at Easter time. It can be used to make Easter pies or you eat a slice with fresh fruit and a drizzle of honey. A firm ricotta like cheese. There are recipes. Recipes to make basket cheese at home and recipes to use the store-bought version to bake savory pies for Easter. There are sweet recipes too. Here’s a recipe for savory Italian Easter Pie

It’s called “basket cheese” because it’s formed in a basket and you can see the imprint of the weaving on the side of the cheese.

“Basket cheese is mild in flavor, so it forms a great combination with bread. It is eaten along with jam or honey and thus forms a great breakfast. Many people enjoy basket cheese as an afternoon snack. Relish its taste with olive oil, pepper and salt its yummy.”

Every Single Dish Was Delicious

A tribute to a restaurant, La Cucina Flegrea– opened in the late ‘90s. now permanently closed. This print is when it was located on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill.

Rigatoni alla Vodka Spaghetti alla Rucola (Arugula) Tagliatelle Zucchini, and the soups!

Steve bought this print in Bloomfield years ago. It’s on my kitchen wall. I was thinking about all the delicious meals I had eaten over the years. My family celebrated my fiftieth birthday at this restaurant in 2002. I took a cooking class with Chef Anna Fevola in 2010 (click to see blog post)

Mementoes of a favorite restaurant, which has been closed a long time ago. Where every single dish was delicious!

Lješnjaci Yes or No?

Greetings from Zagreb.

It’s Lješnjaci season. Hazelnuts. Do you like hazelnuts? I’ve never seen them sold like this in the USA but they grow and are harvested here in Croatia. These lješnjaci are out of the shell and sold in net bags. .

Corylus avellana. Hazelnuts are sweet with characteristic slight notes of musty and earthy. One of the significant flavor mixtures found in hazelnuts is fiber tone. Filbertone is a naturally occurring ketone found in hazelnut oil. It has a roasted, marbled, sweet, and long-lasting character”

https://youtu.be/w9NY1rTnALo video of harvesting hazelnuts in Croatia

Egg Salad Thoughts

Egg salad is a dish I never cared for growing up. I thought the eggs were stinky. The texture unappealing. But freshly made egg salad spread on a saltine cracker or a slice of bread is a satisfying taste to me now. I’ve friends who add mustard, lemon juice, butter, relish, paprika ……making it fancy, but today it’s simple egg salad. Easy on the Mayo.

Simple Egg Salad. Mayo, Salt snd Pepper

Egg salad. Yes or no?

Nopalitos – Marinated Cactus

When I was Arizona, I saw this unusual (to me) products

Nopalitos marinated Cactus recipe for cactus salad

Prickly Pear Cactus paddles Yes or No?

“Are nopales in a jar good for you?”

“Nopales and prickly pear fruit are high in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. They are a nutritious addition to a balanced diet and may help decrease blood sugar, reduce inflammation, and lower cholesterol.

Our Walks Have to be Longer

My friend and I went walking the other morning. There’s is no way our steps were sufficient to counteract the calories -given she brought over a box of Oliver’s Donuts. Jen likes to support her local businesses. Remember her last pastries, I posted ?

I photographed the donuts in two lights, sunshine and shade. Their Signature donut is the Huckleberry. The middle ones are summer seasonal Lemon Lavender. She took the rest to her daughter’s work.

A rich chocolate ganache (Death by Chocolate) and a vanilla with sprinkles in the back. Fancy! I ate half of a Huckleberry (we split it) and a spoonful of the ganache. Death by Chocolate is not kidding! I was happy with my choices. Coffee was a perfect pairing

“ Our sour cream cake donuts have a dense, moist interior with a crispy outside. We always use Pittsburgh-region grown & milled organic flour. We make our donuts fresh throughout the day.”

In sunshine on the front porch
In the shade, still on the front porch