The perfect beginning to a lovely birthday dinner.
Greens and beans. “Escarole, Northern Beans, Garlic, Shallots, White Wine, & Parmesan”
My friend V and I shared this delicious appetizer. You might have seen it from our last visit to this restaurant on the Southside, Cucina Vitale. Know it’s cash only, BYOB and reservations are necessary for dinner.
Bon Appetit article
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One of the good things about fall.
It’s a simple dessert. The time of year when the apples are perfect, so fresh
A sign of fall. Apple Crisp.
If you want to be inspired with Apples Galore, stop by Rufus’ Food and Spirit Guide blog.
I peeled a lot of apples(10), sliced and chopped and put them into a buttered 9×13 glass dish.
Cut a stick of butter into 2 cups of oats (we skip the flour) some salt and about 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Just hint of cinnamon, not to overpower the apples.
Crumble the buttery oatmeal crumbs over the apples. Bake about 50 minutes.
Marlene adds a cup of cranberries to her apples and that makes it nice and tart with the contrast of sweet.
(and a little salty caramel or vanilla ice cream on the side- or even mint, eh Maura?)
Oh no, I didn’t photograph the fragrant apple crisp as it cooled or when it was dished up on plates with the ice cream.
We just ate it!
Ready to whisk eggs before scrambling,
adding some grated cheese, freshly ground pepper
It was the colors in the light that caught my attention.
Two friends from work (JS) and (MK) alerted me it is National Donut Day. Or is it Doughnut?
It is the 75th one so where have I been all these years?
I usually get that kind of info from Foodimentary blog and he is saying it is National Doughnut WEEKEND!
The Weekly Challenge came in this afternoon that you must take the photo TODAY so I shot a few photos of the Highland Park fountain in the rain on the way home from school and the lawn ball in the garden with water drops for today’s post of TODAY
and then my friend Steve came home with a chocolate donut he had gotten for FREE at the Giant Eagle. Can you believe it ?
And he offered it to me.
So of course I took that donut and unwrapped the wrinkled bakery tissue from the sticky frosting (humidity is high high high today) and put it out on the front porch ledge and started to shoot away. I did take a bite out of it for photographic purposes. Honestly, they don’t make donuts like they used to back when I was a kid………… The peeling paint on the stone ledge adds a lot to the photo in my opinion.
(If I were to eat a doughnut it would be without chocolate frosting)
One time Laura sent me tips on how to photograph food. I should have read it more carefully. It is not easy to make it look tasty and inviting. I am at a point in my life where I lay out all the ingredients for a recipe before I start making it. You want to know you aren’t missing something crucial. The phone rings, you’re listening to the radio, you lose count. At least with it all spread out and ready you can doublecheck you added everything. Today was soup making day. I made a double batch but did each one in a single soup pot as I never think doubling in one pot works the best. The key to this Best Recipe is the addition of the Parmigiano Cheese Rind to boil up with the vegetables. It really makes the broth delicious. This recipe is total veg and I don’t add the pasta in the soup pot as it soaks up all the liquid. You can make ditalini and put it in the soup bowl and ladle the hot soup on top. I followed the recipe to the letter, slicing the leeks just so. And there is no such thing as inexpensive Parmesan. I cut the rind in half. The cannellini beans go in the last 5 minutes and I used canned. The recipe is from The Best Recipe cookbook(1999 edition) by the Editors of the Cooks Illustrated Magazine (page 28) or click here for their recipe for Hearty Minestrone. There are charts of other vegetables to use but broccoli is considered too strong for the soup and overpowering. And the reason it is called the Best Recipe is because they test all the recipes for a single dish and make it 100 different ways- with vegetable broth, chicken broth and the water with the wonderful soup rind- and they describe the pros and cons of each method and or addition. It’s good reading, about how and why they conclude they have found the BEST recipe! And I see there is a NEW Best Recipe out now. Yum!
