A week before Christmas Eve, I was making ravioli with my mom for our Italian Feast.
It took over 4 hours of work. They were patiently waiting in my freezer for this special occasion!
They were worth the effort! I’ll post the recipe this week…
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Hope you have a fantastic holiday!
Lots of love & sweets,
Tracy, Casey & Cooper!
xoxox
This past Sunday morning, I made breakfast for our friends before taking our kids to see Santa. Our house was warm and cozy, toddlers were chasing each other around, giggling under the lights of our Christmas tree. It was raining outside; the oven was on and butter was melting away on my skillet. While the adults were chattering away in the kitchen, I was shocked to learn that our friends had never tried panettone. WHAT?! The pressure was now on to make them fall in love with it. But really, how could one not?
I whipped up a very quick custard base. Briefly soaked each side of the panettone and laid out the saturated slabs on my buttered skillet to brown. Ahh the beautiful sounds of butter browning egg soaked bread. French toast stacked up on a baking sheet the warm oven. The table was set. Bacon was sizzling in the background (should I mention I burned a small batch of bacon & the power went out for 5 seconds? NO!) and within a second of calling everyone to the table, a tornado hit our kitchen. As usual, I was off to the side taking pictures, while everyone dug in. I could hear forks and knives hitting plates, toddler’s making silly noises, adults talking with their mouths full and in that instant, without looking, I knew the french toast was well received.
I think I converted 2 adults and possibly two children into panettone lovers with this recipe. My husband who normally does NOT like french toast, said it was exceptional. I guess he candied fruit & raisins with the orange zest elevated the french toast to EXCEPTIONAL status. Hooray! If you are still trying to decide what to make for Christmas morning, this might be the way to go!
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A week ago, I was sitting in our basement in my bathrobe talking to Lucinda Scala Quinn, the Executive Food Editor of Martha Stewart Omnimedia about Bauducco Panettone. My hair was soaking wet and my cell phone was dangerously propped up on a stool while I was trying super hard not to wake up Casey & Cooper. I spent the previous week denying my nerves. This is no big deal. I’ve got this! Then, the few seconds of hold time made me a little frantic. Lucinda’s voice came on the line and my heart sank. There she is….The one I’ve been watching on TV for years…The one who changed the course of my life with her perfect fried egg! Of course I blabbed to her about my love for her gorgeous cookbook, Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys and how I’ve never cooked that many recipes from a single cookbook before! It wasn’t until we started talking about panettone, when I felt like I could handle this level of responsibility. We’re just two women, talking on the phone about addictive nature of panettone and how hard it is to stop eating a whole loaf in one sitting.
Let’s play the WHAT IF game. What if I went back in time and slipped this recipe into my mother’s yellow recipe binder when I was a kid? How would that change the course of my life? Would that mean I wouldn’t be writing this today? Would I have 9 children and live on a commune in the desert? Would the flux capacitor actually exist? That would mean the delorean would still be a popular car, right!? Would I weigh over 500 lbs? Would I have my own biscuit shop in Vermont? One may never know…. The good news is that today I’m making up for my biscuit-less childhood. Reason #2482 why my son is the luckiest boy–these biscuits! He will never have to ponder this great big WHAT IF? What if my mom wasn’t a crazy biscuit lover? She just is.
What I like about biscuits is that they can be eaten at every meal– all day long. A huge dollop of apricot jam and a sliver of butter and your breakfast is covered. Split one in half, add some bacon, a slice of aged sharp cheddar, some tomato & arugula and you’ve got yourself a fantastic lunch. Plop one in a big bowl of white bean chili and LOOK! Dinner is served! Or you could be just like your pal, Tracy and eat a whole batch within a course of a Sunday…
After doing my Cookie Party Roundup, I realized that there are people out there who get OVER LOADED with cookies on the holidays. Sometimes I feel bad adding to one’s cookie loot because there have been times where I’ve definitely been over-cookied. Since there’s a little time left, and some of you might be scrambling to make something this weekend or next week before Christmas arrives, here’s a post dedicated to those of you who are NUTS about NUTS! The best part is that they’re all simple to tackle and most all of these recipes have a decent shelf life. Who doesn’t appreciate that at this time of year?
A snap to whip up. Great added to yogurt, topped on pancakes, or eaten straight out of the jar you present it in.
The hardest part will be having some left to give AS presents. Watch out!
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On my 31 comes before 32 list, I set out to take a knife skills class. A few weeks ago, I was puttering around the internet looking for classes and found an Essential Knife Skills class at my local Sur La Table! After all the Thanksgiving preparations & the vacation away with family (don’t get me started on how much energy was put into packing up this small family of three!) I decided to treat myself to a class on a Monday night, all by myself! Have I ever told you that I find chopping food to be fun and relaxing? Is that weird?
