Cranberry Coffeecake from Fork vs. Spoon

Well, Hello there!

Mallory here, from Fork Vs Spoon… , I need to thank Katie for inviting me into her world and letting me meet her readers.  Thank You!!  When she asked, I was thrilled and happily agreed to prepare a post for her blog while she is away – however, the thought crossed my mind to ask if she had room in her suitcase for little ol’ me….but I would probably cost too much in luggage weight fees, plus I would take up ample room that should be allotted for shoes.

I have been a fan of Katie’s blog for some time.  I am always looking forward to her next post.  The stories, the recipes, the photos…and of course her cookbook reviews.  She is responsible for many of the cookbooks that are scattered throughout my kitchen and the abundant amount flooding my Amazon Wish List….Thank goodness there is no such thing as too many cookbooks! (they are kinda like shoes!)

So, Katie Thank You for the invite and here we go…

Guest blogs are so much fun, but instantly after I happily accept the invite I start over-thinking brainstorming dishes – sweet or savory?  Quick and easy or should I flex my culinary muscles – ha!  Cocktail?  Oh, my brain starts turning.  Before long, I forget about my to-make list of recipes and ideas and my mind goes blank.  I wander to my stack of dog-eared and overly bookmarked magazines and cookbooks.  Most marked with stains and worn from constant use.  I flip through and search my files of saved recipes…and most times I find myself just standing in front of the  fridge/freezer, taking stock of  what I have on hand and 9 times out of 10, find the ingredients for something quite suitable for a blog post, and dinner or dessert. I also hear my grandfather in my head,  hollering from the living room,  to close the refrigerator door…just wasting energy!  He always thought we should know what we wanted before we arrived at its door, but little did he know it was my method of brainstorming.  I think the cold air gets my brain a workin’.

And honestly, this is how I go about cooking and baking for my own blog and my everyday.  What am I craving?  What do I have on hand?  How much time do I have?  Who else will enjoying this?  Who is my audience?  Answering these simple questions will always lead me in the right direction and they have a way of organizing my thoughts…which have a tendency to be a bit scattered.

And this is how a cranberry coffeecake found its way into my oven last Sunday.  And eventually into my stomach, along with an ample amount of coffee.

Come on over for the recipe!  

The post Guest Post from Fork vs. Spoon: Cranberry Coffeecake appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Florentine failure begets brilliant bollito baguette

Overall, Gourmandistan did not have very good luck with Florence. Our misfortune may have started with breaking Rule #1 of the Gourmandistani Guide for Going Places: “Food comes first.” (Rule #2: “Always pack a spare corkscrew.”) Seeking a side trip from our month-long stay a few years ago in the Colli Euganei outside Padua, Michelle booked a spur-of-the-moment overnight visit to Florence. For reasons that remain unclear to this day, she skipped her usual intensive research and ignored the conspicuous lack of Michelin-starred restaurants, thinking for once in our lives we’d just wing it. After all, how bad could the birthplace of the Renaissance be?

A lovely drive from the Veneto, through Tuscan hillsides thick with cedar trees and sienna rooftops, had us looking forward the city of the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio and more. And throughout our stay, we did find ourselves in the midst of mounds of art and architecture. Unfortunately, most of it seemed covered in touts, tat and street-wide phalanxes of Chinese and American tourist groups battling for prime spots under the frenzied direction of flag-bearing guides. Our dreams of dashing through the Uffizi late in the afternoon? Trampled under a long, long line of people with reservations (!) who were still praying to get in before closing time. We settled for the simulated version of Michelangelo’s David stuck outside the museum, while we struggled to capture views that did not contain squinting/squatting photographers and/or garish souvenirs more tacky than the stuff found across the street from Elvis Presley’s Graceland.

The food choices Florence presented on our first day were so frustratingly bad we seriously considered eating sketchy Italian sushi, since we had failed to realize many Florentine restaurants take Sunday off. Our concierge recommended a place promising “authentic food to real Tuscans” in a residential area that was a fair walk from our hotel. We arrived to find its garage-type door bafflingly half open, the tables set but no one in sight. After hanging around for 30 minutes or so, we turned about and walked back to the city center, grabbing some so-so pizza and passable osso buco from a touristy trattoria for lunch. That night, thinking we’d misread the restaurant’s website, we decided to hike back to the “real Tuscan” place. Once again, the restaurant gate was half open, and there seemed to be someone lurking in the back. However, no dinner was served. As a cold rain fell, we retreated to our hotel room in defeat, dining on convenience store snacks and cheap wine while watching the “Miss Italia” pageant on TV.

We awoke the next morning irritable, hungry and increasingly convinced we were “Patient Zero” of anti-Stendhal syndrome. Grimly facing our final hours in Florence, we decided to bag the beautiful buildings and do what we like best—go to a market. Dodging more tourists and tat, we walked to the Mercato Centrale. There, we found Nerbone and its wonderful boiled beef (bollito) and tripe (lampredotto) sandwiches, and Florence redeemed itself. (Drinking red wine with breakfast didn’t hurt, either.)

Because our hotel had a ludicrously early checkout time and the staff seemed disinclined to store our bags and car beyond it, we had to eat quickly and hurry back.  Sadly, our favorite part of Florence was also one of our fastest.

On the way back to our Veneto home, cheered by the comfort of boiled beef and tripe, we stopped in Fiesole hoping for one last view of the city. We found ourselves in a freak hilltop hailstorm. Obviously, Tuscany was not very “us-cany”—but we did, at least, have those sandwiches. (The next year, though, we returned to our beloved France for our annual fall vacation.)

In honor of Katie’s vacation, we decided to recreate one of our favorite Florentine dishes.

Finding a non-industrial source of tripe in our current locale proved impossible. (Thanks for the advice, friends, but we’re not shopping at Walmart.) We did, though, find a recipe for bollito misto in Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. While we didn’t have the called-for tongue, veal breast, cochino sausage or a chicken (neither, we should point out, did Nerbone), using a local veal brisket by itself still produced a rich beefy broth along with soft, sweetly-flavored meat. Hazan also came through with recipes for accompanying green and red sauces, which Michelle zested up with chili and garlic. We couldn’t find a suitable recipe for the Kaiser-like rolls, but a split baguette from a wonderful local bakery worked just as well, especially when drenched with extra broth. Bollito is the way Gourmandistan prefers to remember Florence—but we certainly hope Katie returns with even better experiences. (She’ll undoubtedly have better pictures.)

Have fun in Firenze, Katie!

PANINO CON BOLLITO

(adapted from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking)

BOLLITO

• 1 veal (or beef) brisket
• 1 carrot, peeled
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 onion, peeled
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs parsley
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 c. canned crushed tomatoes
• Red pepper flakes
• Salt & pepper

Put all ingredients together in a Dutch oven or large pot.  Bring to a simmer. Skim, if needed.  Cook for several hours over low heat, until meat is very soft. Remove meat to a cutting board to cool.  Strain broth and set aside. Slice meat across grain. Chop slices into small pieces.

SALSA VERDE (Green Sauce):

• 1 c. parsley leaves
• 3 TB capers (rinsed, if using salted capers)
• 6 anchovy filets
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 t. grainy mustard
• 1 t. red wine vinegar
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• Salt & pepper

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process, stopping and using a spatula to push down sides as necessary.  Taste for seasoning.

SALSA ROSSA (Red Sauce):

• 2 red bell peppers
• 2 onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 TB olive oil
• Red pepper flakes
• 1/2 – 3/4 c. canned chopped or crushed tomatoes
• Salt & pepper

Skin peppers with a vegetable peeler. Then split them lengthwise and remove core and seeds. Cut pepper flesh into thin slices.

Cook onions in olive oil, stirring occasionally, until soft. Add peppers and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until reduced by about half.

Add pepper flakes, tomato, salt and pepper. Continue cooking at a simmer for about 20 minutes. Taste for seasoning.

SANDWICH ASSEMBLY:

Toast a baguette or (more authentically) a Kaiser roll, sliced in half horizontally.  Mound some meat on top of bottom half of bread. Pour some of the reserved broth over. Top, first with red sauce, then with green sauce.

The post Guest Post from Gourmandistan: Florentine failure begets brilliant bollito baguette appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.