Father's Day

Father's day, more than anything, meant a day full of FOOD. My brother and I gave my father some cook books, which he loved. However, since our tradition was to always give an egg-related item, I thought I had to make up for this loss by trying a new egg recipe for breakfast. I thought, "heck, I've never made eggs benedict before, why not today!"

So I did just that: I found that is it much easier to keep the egg together if you first crack it onto a small platter, and then slide it onto the simmering water. I kept it on there for about 3 minutes, and then covered with a plate for about 20 seconds- just so the top will get steamed a little. And what's eggs benedict without the hollandaise sauce??? The sauce was the definition of a cholesterol attack: just yolks and butter. YIKES. But sometimes you gotta sacrifice something... and it WAS father's day!

Served it on some french bread and topped with cayenne pepper and some rosmary (just to add some color to the plate) and voila!

Later that day, we went to a friend's house for "lunch" (can we really call it just lunch if it lasts 6 hours?) and ate our hearts out. My father made some pickled cow tongue for the occasion- an Argentinian delicase- and the host put together a truly beautiful table.

Lots of salads, cheeses, and home-made breads YUM!

When we finally got home, I immediately set out to make a tiramisu to surprise my mother with. My favorite recipes are the most simple ones: I don't like adding any kind of cream, gelatine, or flavoring to the mix. I changed only a few things from this recipe: Instead of using only the egg yolks, I beat the whites as well until soft peaks formed, and folded them into the yolk/mascarpone mixture- this makes the tiramisu much less heavy and more fluffy. Next, I lined the bottom of my container with chocolate covered graham crackers instead of lady fingers- I think that gives it a yummy little kick (I kept the lady fingers for the middle layer!). I also switched the rum for coffee liquor- I felt it was a much better match. It's probably futile to mention that my mom LOVED IT!

Doesn't quite do it justice

Living at Home

Start the drumroll becuase last May (drummsss) I graduated from the University of Florida! Since then, I've moved back home and started an internship doing research and development for Chiquita. I see so many bananas everyday!! But more importantly, I've been able to cook much more easily (and make much more intricate things) now that I'm home. I can't believe I lived 4 years without an electric mixer. How did I survive??

One of the first dishes I made was a porcini mushroom risotto, one of my favorite dishes from Italy. I hit quite a few obstacles, however. My guests were gluten free, meat free, and dairy free. Since risotto is gluten free, that part was easy enough. Meat free may seem easy as well, but I usually cook it with chicken stock- had to scratch that! I also had to throw out any cheese or milk from the recipe- yikes!

Risotto, though it requires a lot of patience, is easy enough to make. First I cooked the rice a little in some oil in a large pan. At the same time, I soaked about half a cup of dried porcini mushrooms in a large cup of warm water- you'd be surprised how much flavor these pack in! When the rice started getting clear, I added about a cup of white wine, waited for the rice to soak it all up, and began adding the porcini water- little by little. You never want to drown the rice, but avoid having it dry up as well. When the porcini water ran out,  I continued adding water or vegetable broth.

When the rice looked almost cooked, I added the porcini mushrooms, some spinach for fun, and the VEGAN pamersan cheese I found. I personally think nothing could measure to the true deliciousness of real parmesano, but my friends really enjoyed this. The final product was fabulous!

Here are some photos I took with my phone:

Really lovely dinner with friends <3