Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve.  Only one more trip to the grocery store for Christmas dinner supplies.  I took an amazing trip to Italy last summer and went to a cooking school in Sicily.  Check it out at lovesicily.com.  We ate amazing food, learned to cook some outstanding dishes and took in the culture and uniqueness of the island.

                                   

This is looking at the fantastic town of Modica from the balcony of the cookery.  Katia Amore, along with her husband Ronald, own and operate it.  Along with new recipes I came back with an appreciation of Olive Oil and will only ever use the good stuff.  Katia left me with this quote about Olive Oil; "Not all expensive olive oil is good, but all cheap olive oil is bad."  Do try and find this one, Mastri Di San Basilio.  We visited the grove, met the grower, had a tour and then sat down and did an oil tasting followed by a luncheon prepared by his wife.  To order the oil go to alice.com.  It's a great little website with a ton of things and if you order 6 items shipping is free.

Anywho, back to Christmas... I will be making a pasta with mint sauce.  Half of it will have prosciutto in it the other half will cater to the vegetarians in the family.  In Sicily we made it with monk fish.  It was delish but the fish in our part of the country right now...not so great.
Cheers and peace.

My Kitchen

My mixer and oven have been on overdrive this week.  The creations Annie and I have made are full of butter, sugar and love.  Mum always said only to use real butter and cream when the recipe calls for it.  We have made Biscotti, Mud Hens, Almond Crescents, Chocolate Butter Crunchers, Carmelita's and World Peace Cookies.  The latter was a recipe in our local paper yesterday and the name alone sucked me in so I made 'em.  Pretty yummy too...salty.

A new addition to my holiday repetoire this year are Salted Caramels or Fleur De Sel Caramels.  If you love the salt sweet thing these are for you.  They are a Barefoot Contessa recipe and a no fail...well, I failed one batch and I have no idea why...the sugar got all crystally on me.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon fleur de sel, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan (or loaf pan) with parchment paper, then brush the paper lightly with oil, allowing the paper to drape over 2 sides.
In a deep saucepan (6 inches diameter by 4 1/2 inches deep) combine the sugar, corn syrup, and 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Continue to boil until the caramel is a warm golden brown color. Don't stir - just swirl the pan to mix. Watch carefully, as it will burn quickly at the end!
In the meantime, bring the cream, butter, and 1 teaspoon fleur de sel to a simmer in a small pan over medium heat. Remove from the heat, set aside and keep warm.
When the caramelized sugar is the right color, slowly add the cream mixture to the caramel - it will boil up violently. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until the mixture reaches 248 degrees F (firm ball) on a candy thermometer. Very carefully (it's hot!) pour the caramel into the prepared pan and refrigerate until firm.
When the caramels are cool, use the parchment paper to pry the sheet from the pan onto a cutting board. Starting at 1 end, roll the caramel up tightly until you've rolled up half of the sheet. Cut the sheet across and then roll the second half tightly. You will have 2 (1 by 8-inch) logs. Sprinkle both logs lightly with fleur de sel, cut each log in 8 pieces. Cut parchment papers in 6 by 4 1/2-inch squares and wrap each caramel in a paper, twisting the ends. Store in the refrigerator or at room temperature.

You will not be dissappointed!
Peace.

Mum's Dining Room Table

The title for my blog comes from the name of a cookbook I created.  For years I had all of my Mum's recipes; hand written and cut out of newspapers and magazines.  She was known in our family and in her circle of friends as an outstanding cook.  She dug Julia and many others.  In her final months I began creating a cookbook with all of our faves.  I told her everyday of the latest entries.  Check out tastebook.com for help with your own.  What she was most noted for were her Christmas Cookies.  She began right after Thanksgiving and by Christmas the freezer in the laundry room was loaded.  After brunch and presents on Christmas morning we lined up the containers of cookies on Mum's Dining Room Table and filled gift boxes for all of us to take home and to hand out to neighbors and special friends.
Peace.

Inspiration

Every morning I peruse my favorite blogs.  I love food and sewing blogs.  I love the art of the creators of the blogs.  I am not artistic.  3 of 5 kids in my family are artists...not me.  I can read directions and make.  I cannot pull out a sketch pad and go to town unless I'm tracing.  So, the way I create is by cooking or sewing.  My inspiration while cooking is my Mum.  She taught me most everything I know.  She always said, "If you can read, you can cook".  I'm not quite sure about the sewing part.  I took Home Ec in High School and got hooked.  I've gotten better at randomly creating something but I must always have direction to begin.  I'm a perfectionist but I can't be bothered with details.  Hmmm...
Peace.