food blog friday.

One of my favorite food blogs, Pinch My Salt, features a recipe made from a different food blog every Friday. I think this is such a fun idea and am trying it this week. I have a bunch of amazing little golden potatoes that boil up beautifully. I was thinking of making them for dinner tonight, and saving the leftovers for a potato salad for the weekend. Instead of just heading to epicurious, I looked at what is probably my favorite (but how can you choose between your children?) food blogs ever - smitten kitchen. This potato salad recipe caught my eye, and after reading Deb's comments, I'm so glad I didn't just pick it up at epicurious. There is a very involved foil-roasting on a bed of salt plus peeling and standing on your head and reading War and Peace before it's done. Her suggestions made me consider a recipe I otherwise wouldn't have wanted to undertake. My plan is to boil them as usual, and make the potato salad with the dijon vinaigrette and green onion, omitting the shallots and tarragon and maybe including some fresh parsley as the herb if I have any on  hand.

Stay tuned also for a very ambitious meatloaf recipe.

Barefoot June

The Barefood Bloggers group posted their recipes for June today! I am so excited because I haven't been able to participate yet since I have been traveling so much.

The selections are:

Sour Cream Coffee Cake and Scalloped Tomatoes

I am really excited about these two choices. I think the scalloped tomatoes sound like a really delicious side that takes the heat off the main dish. Just some simply grilled swordfish or steak with the tomatoes sounds like an amazing summer meal. At first I wasn't that excited about the coffee cake, but I absolutely love using sour cream in cooking and baking, so I am sure I will love it. And I've been loving those banana muffins, so maybe this will be something I can add to my baking repertoire for when guests come to stay.

a simple dessert

I've heard of balsamic and strawberries as a combination before, but I always imagined there was some really fussy reduction and caramelizing to achieve it. Thanks to a simple google search, I discovered this was not the case. You simply hull and halve the strawberries and dust them with a handful of sugar, and a healthy splash of balsamic vinegar (a few tablespoons). Let them sit at room temperature for at least one, but not more than four, hours.

And, oh my, are they amazing. The vinegar ends up just a tangy note that brings out the strawberry-ness of the strawberries. We drizzled the sauce and strawberries over vanilla ice cream. This is the easiest, most elegant dessert.

Balsamic Strawberries
adapted from various internet recipes

16 oz strawberries
1/3 c. sugar
2 Tbs Balsamic vinegar

combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss.
let sit for 1 - 4 hours at room temperature.
serve with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or mascarpone cheese.

bon appetit!

dinner tonight

We've been doing a lot of grilling recently so I thought I'd try something a little different tonight, again from "Giada at Home." Bucatini all'a Amatriciana! This one has smoked mozzarella meatballs, but I think I may leave that out. I am going to make the bucatini from scratch, so I may save myself the extra step on the cheese. Also, then we have classic meatballs to use in sandwiches this week! Yum.

I have to say again, this is the best Giada cookbook. I like it better than Everyday Italian, and am sad to say I've never even cooked anything out of Everyday Pasta. I usually find her recipes to be a bit fussy, but this time it seems like she made the effort not just to change things for the sake of adding a twist of her own.

I'll report back a review tomorrow!

barefoot and blogging

I am obsessed with the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. Her recipes are delicious and simple and she seems like someone who really is the way she seems on TV. Her recipes are so easy to follow and always turn out great. That's why I was excited to hear about this blogging group - Barefoot Bloggers. Everyone is assigned the same recipe from Ina's collection every two weeks, and then they all post about it. It's so much fun to read what people substituted or how different people's opinions can be, and it's a great way to find other cooking blogs. I've emailed the leader and hope to join for the next recipe! I'll let you know how it goes.