Italian Penicillan

Vermilionink/flickr

I have eaten very little since I came down with this thing, it wasn’t bad the first few days but by day three my stomach rumblings were beginning to scare those around me. I really don’t have much of an appetite but I know that you can never go wrong with soup. I was just going to do plain old egg drop soup but decided to kick it up a bit and make it Italian style. Let’s hope it helps, I am still feeling pretty lousy.

Italian Egg Drop Soup

1 qt. rich chicken stock

2 eggs

1/4 c. freshly shredded Romano or Parmesan cheese

I always like greens in mine so I always add a couple good handfuls of kale, spinach or escarole to the broth.

Heat broth to boiling, beat eggs and cheese together, pour mixture into boiling broth and remove pan from heat; do not stir

Bad Case of the Flu

I'll be back shortly, I just need to rest for a few days.

Pizza Bianca

CknLomeins?Flickr.com

I have always been a huge fan of white pizza; I actually prefer it over the traditional with tomato sauce. Don’t get me wrong that doesn’t mean that I’d pass up a slice of the tomato sauce laden pie but if given the choice I will always choose the white.
I have grown up with some really great pizza makers, my aunt, grandmother and I even had an uncle that use to make a pretty mean pizza. Over the years I have honed my own pizza making skills mostly because I really haven’t had much luck finding any pizzeria’s around here that I like. There is one exception though, a little place called Surace’s right around the corner, so close I can walk to it. Surace’s makes this white veggie pizza that I adore, it comes with lots of cheese olive oil, garlic, broccoli and artichokes. I tweak mine a bit and order it with extra cheese and anchovies, it is so good.

White Pizza

Pizza dough (your recipe, store bought, frozen bread dough, whatever you like to use)
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

3 large cloves garlic, minced

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1 cup shredded provolone (may also use any other cheese you prefer)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano

1 (15-ounce) can artichoke hearts in water, drained and thinly sliced
Cut up broccoli, Spinach (again, whatever you like)
Anchovies (optional)

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 425-450 degrees F.

Press out dough or place store bought shell onto a pizza pan or cookie sheet.
Drizzle dough with oil and scatter minced garlic over dough to the edges.
Cover with all of the cheeses combined and work all the way to the edge of the dough.
Top with artichoke hearts, broccoli (whatever toppings you like)
Cook 8 to 10 minutes, until cheeses have melted and begin to bubble. Remove from oven and garnish with parsley. Cut with pizza wheel or knife into squares or wedges and serve.

The Baking Sisters

My aunt Jay is back in the kitchen baking today making her famous rugelach. For a little Italian lady she makes a mean Jewish pastry, even her Jewish friends agree. This time her only assistant in the kitchen will be my grandmother, no gentlemen callers today.
My grandmother will be transporting some of that rugelach back to Rochester for all of us, aren’t aunts and grandmothers’ the best!

Rugelach

1 cup of butter
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted flour
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped raisins
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts
2 Teaspoons ground cinnamon

Blend butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add flour and sour cream; beat until it is mixed well. Cover; refrigerate overnight. Add together sugar, raisins, nuts and cinnamon. Divide dough into 6 parts.
On a floured board, roll the balls into a 9 inch circle then slice into 10 wedges. Place a heaping teaspoon of sugar mixture in center of each wedge. Roll each wedge. Place on baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for approximately 25 minutes.

Makes about 5 dozen.

Gentlemen Prefer Cookies!

Remember going to a bar or a club to meet men? Well I found out this morning that bars and clubs are a thing of the past. If you really want to get a man interested entice him with cookies! This little piece of knowledge came my way in the form of an innocent phone call to my grandmother (88 yrs.) and aunt (91 yrs.) in Florida. My grandmother answered the phone and said, “Guess what your aunt and I are doing today”? We are having a nice gentleman over to teach him how to bake cookies. After my mouth dropped for a second I thought, how cute. It turns out my aunt Jay had been giving some of her cookies to her mail carrier who in turn shared some of the cookies with a friend of his. Well his friend loved them and wanted to know who made them, long story short the man was introduced to my aunt, they became friends and today at 1:00 pm he is having lunch with my grandmother and aunt who are then both going to teach him how to bake Italian lemon cookies.


Italian Lemon Cookies


4 cups flour
1 cup of sugar
8 Teaspoons of baking powder
3 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup of butter, softened
4 Teaspoons of lemon extract
1 Teaspoon of lemon zest (optional)

Mix all ingredients together (by hand or mixer). Drop onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes.

FROSTING:
1 box confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon of lemon extract
3 Tablespoons of Milk (should be runny enough to drizzle, if too thick add a little more milk)

Mix and pour over cookies as desired.

Horton Hears A Who! Frying What? Where?

Don’t worry Horton; it’s only me that you hear. I am in the kitchen frying up a batch of elephant ears. I promise you that your ears are safe, not one single elephant has ever lost their ears or their life in the making of this recipe.

I never made the connection until recently that elephant ears and the fried dough I grew up with were one in the same. We always used pizza dough for our “Pizza Fritte” what we grew up knowing as fried dough. The ingredients for the elephant ears are almost the same except that the elephant ears use a Crisco type shortening and the pizza dough uses oil. I always find it interesting that so many cultures have similar versions of the same recipe. Indian fry bread and Sopapillas are another example of culturally popular fried dough recipes with very subtle changes to their ingredients and preparation. I guess one thing we can be certain of that no matter what it’s called or what part of the world it’s from people are definitely united in their love of fried dough.

Elephant Ears (not real elephant ears, Horton)!

1 1/2 cups milk

1 tsp. salt

2 packets dry yeast

2 tbsp. sugar

6 tbsp. shortening (Crisco)

4 cups flour

Oil for frying

Toppings:

Melted butter (optional)

Powdered sugar, sifted

Cinnamon/sugar mix

Heat but do not boil milk, sugar, salt and shortening until shortening is melted. Cool to lukewarm. Add yeast and stir until dissolved. Stir in flour 2 cups at a time, beating until smooth after reach addition.
Put into greased bowl. Cover with damp cloth, let rise until double. Dust hands with flour. Pinch off pieces of dough size of golf ball. Stretch into 6-8 inch circle. Drop into hot oil in pan large enough to fry 6-8 pieces. Fry until pieces rise, turn with tongs and fry until light brown. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with desired topping.

Horde Of The Rings

We take for granted just how easy some foods are to prepare ourselves. It seems that we are so conditioned to automatically purchase certain foods pre-made at a supermarket or by taking a quick trip through a drive thru. I started to think about this when a friend of mine asked me to pick up some frozen onion rings at the supermarket to have with dinner, I said you are kidding those aren’t even real onion rings. They are just minced onion and mostly bread crumbs. I told her I would just make the onion rings, she looked shocked. You know how to make onion rings (like it was some mysterious government secret) I said yes and they are really easy to make and taste a lot better than anything you’d get from a store or drive thru not to mention how much more you would get for a lot less money. So I proceeded to make the onion rings as she watched looking at me like I was some great magician. As soon as she took her first bite she never wanted store bought or drive thru again.
It really is silly the money we waste on certain foods just to save a little time, we get so little and spend so much for what? I think taking the time affords us more in our lives and it sure as hell tastes a lot better when we do.

Beer Battered Onion Rings

1 1/2 cups of flour (pancake mix also works well)
1 1/2 cups of beer, active or flat, cold or at room temperature (Guinness makes for a really rich tasting batter and color but any beer will do).
3 lbs of Bermuda onions, Vidalia or any variety that you like
4 cups shortening or oil
Salt to taste (it's best to salt them right when they come out of the fryer)

Combine flour and beer in a large bowl and blend thoroughly, using a whisk. Cover the bowl and allow the batter to sit at room temperature for no less than 3 hours. Twenty minutes before the batter is ready, preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place brown paper from grocery bags or layers of paper toweling on a jelly roll pan. Carefully peel the papery skins from the onions into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices.
Separate the slices into rings and set aside.
Heat electric frying pan to 375 degrees and heat the cooking oil. With metal tongs, dip a few onion rings into batter. Then carefully place them in the hot oil. Fry rings, turning them once or twice until they're an even, delicate golden color. Now transfer to the paper-lined pan. To keep warm, place them on the middle shelf of the oven until all the onion rings have been fried.