National Raspberry Cake Day

I know.

I know you don’t want to bake.

It’s hot out, and just being in the kitchen is silly. Turning the oven on to 400f is even sillier.

But, with great sacrifice, comes great reward.

And if you’re really lucky, you get great reward, for only a teeny tiny sacrifice.

This friends, is one of those times.

This “four fork”  Buttermilk Raspberry Cake recipe that I found on Epicurious (of course) is dead dead easy. Just get out your kitchen-aid, and this cake will be ready for the oven in minutes. It continues my interest in deserts with buttermilk – I like the edge it brings to often overly sweet desert. And i *heart* raspberries… they are one of my favourite fruits. I got these fresh from Mitchell’s farm here on the Saanich peninsula.

And the reward is really there – served warm with a little coulis and vanilla ice cream, it’s a whole lot of happy in your mouth. Next time I’ll add a bit of nutmeg or cinnamon, and it will be a true taste of summer.

~Dea

ps – this entire cake was eaten by 4 people in about 10 minutes… don’t plan on leftovers.

National Cheesecake Day

Like Della, I’m not all that keen to turn on my oven in the middle of a heat wave. Luckily for me, I happened to be in the liquor store (big surprise) and noticed the summer edition of Taste magazine sitting there.  I love liquor store magazines, don’t you? They’re full of articles about – what else? – alcohol, and then really yummy-looking recipes with wine and alcohol pairings. How can you go wrong?

But where was I? Oh, yes: cheesecake. There is something seriously wrong with this list. Who the hell bakes a cheesecake in July? Not me, that’s for darned sure.

Oh, happy day when I found a recipe in Taste for no-bake strawberry cheesecake bites (picture at p. 103, recipe at 153 – check it out here). They looked like delectable pink clouds banked against graham wafer shores. Or something. So I gave them a shot. I had actually intended to make cherry cheesecake bites because cherries are in season right now and strawberries are back to being crappy California ones, but no dice. My grocery store was the only one in the Lower Mainland without BC cherries, unfortunately. And I was too lazy to look around. At least I opted for organic strawberries.

Recipe below, with comments inserted (p.s. this is half the recipe. Well, sort of. I think it still makes 20 cheesecake bites. The full recipe would make giant cheesecake many bites.

Strawberry Cheesecake Bites
(makes 20 cheesecakes)

• 1/2 T powdered gelatine
• 1 T water
• 1 pkg cream cheese, room temp.
• 1/2 lemon, zest & juice
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 C white sugar
• 2 T sour cream
• 1/2 C whipping cream
• 6 oz strawberries, diced
• graham wafer crumbs

Line an 8×8” pan with plastic wrap (the original recipe has you do this for a full pound of cream cheese, resulting, as I said earlier, in many bites).

Beat together cream cheese, lemon zest & juice, vanilla, sugar and sour cream until smooth. Melt gelatine (either in a small saucepan or in a microwave for 15 seconds – I heated it in the mic for the recommended 30 seconds and ended up with boiling gelatine all over the mic, the counter, and me. I should sue for the disfiguring burns!) and whisk into cream cheese.

In a separate bowl, beat cream until whipped (that just sounds dirty, doesn’t it?). Fold whipped cream & strawberries into cream cheese.

Spread into prepared pan and freeze for 3-4 hours until set (this is the part I didn’t get. Still don’t. Why freeze it if you’re adding gelatine? Why add gelatine if you’re going to freeze it?)

Take cheesecake out of freezer & soften slightly – about 20 minutes. Cut into bites and roll in graham crumbs. Serve.

First I just powdered the bottoms but they weren't that pretty.

Then I rolled them around. I actually like the look of them better this way.

So, what ended up happening is that I gnawed away at frozen cheesecake and really frozen strawberries. It was much better the next day, when I just took the bites out of the fridge.

~ Eva

National Lasagna Day (In July? Really?)

So here’s the deal.  It is 8:00am and about 23⁰ in my apartment right now.  It is completely comfortable to sit and have a cup of coffee and maybe some toast, but it won’t be if I turn on my oven.  Back in June when I asked for the lasagna blog, it had been one of the coldest Junes on record in Vancouver.  Now we are nearing the end of one of the warmest, driest Julys.  For that reason alone, I will not be turning on my oven, and I will not be baking a pasta until sometime in October, give or take a couple of weeks.

I wanted to do this blog simply because lasagna is one of my favourite winter meals.  I love the melted cheese, the hearty pasta, the savoury bolognaise.  I love that it makes good leftovers and an easy make-ahead dish.  I love that I can cook two on Sunday, finish the leftovers on Tuesday and pull the extra one out of the freezer two weeks later when I know I won’t have time to cook.  I considered making a more “summery” lasagna for this blog, but none were quite as appealing to me as the dense richness of a meaty tomato sauce smothered in cheese.  Added to the fact that I still needed to bake the summer versions and they just didn’t cut it.

So here I am, sitting in my overly warm apartment, watching my poor black lab melt in the heat (he has already been for a swim this morning to cool off), and thinking that all I can do today is share my version of lasagna with you, hopefully to be enjoyed on a cool autumn evening with a glass of robust red wine and a big slab of garlicky bread.  The truth is, I don’t have a recipe.  My lasagna is years of adding new things, adapting to a pantry missing ingredients, and learning what it is that gives me that sense of satisfaction when I take the first bite.  I have concluded that the key to a good lasagna is the richness of the bolognaise, the creaminess of the cheese layer and that it must not be too watery.  The following is a close proximity to what I do, though I never measure, so the quantities are more of an estimate.  I suggest that you play around to find what works for you.

Bolognaise Sauce

• ¼ lb bacon, diced
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 lb hot Italian sausage, casings removed
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 lb mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 medium zucchini, grated
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1 stalk celery, grated
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 28oz can San Marzano tomatoes, pureed
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large sauce or sauté pan, cook bacon until almost crispy and fat has rendered off.  Remove bacon from pan but leave fat.  Add beef and sausage to pan and cook until browned.  Add onions, and garlic to pan and cook until the begin to brown.  Add tomato paste and chili powder to pan and cook until it begins to darken in colour.  Add the remaining vegetables and oregano and return bacon to pan.  Cook for about 5 minutes until mushrooms begin to release their water.   Add wine to deglaze the pan and cook until mostly evaporated.  Add tomatoes to pan with about a cup of water.  Let simmer for about an hour, until meat is tender

Cheese Layer:

• 1 litre tub of ricotta cheese
• 1 cup grated pecorino romano cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
• salt to taste
• fresh ground black pepper, generous amount

Combine everything in a bowl and set aside.  You can substitute cottage cheese for the ricotta.  To improve the texture, give it a whirl in the food processor.

You will also need lasagna noodles, some grated pecorino or parmagiano regiano and about a pound of grated mozzarella.

To assemble the lasagna, ladle a thin layer of bolognaise into the bottom of a lasagna pan.  Add a layer of barely cooked noodles.  Add a thick layer of bolognaise, sprinkle with pecorino.  Add a layer of noodles.  Spread ricotta cheese mixture over the noodles.  Add another layer of noodles.  Top with a final layer of bolognaise and finish with grated mozzarella and another sprinkling of pecorino.

Cover with aluminum foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for about one hour.

Remover foil and bake for another 20 minutes until cheese is browned and bubbly.

I hope you enjoy this sometime in October.

Bon appétit,

Della