We are headed to Key West for a little Valentine’s Day mini vacation, and to celebrate our upcoming trip, I decided to make individual key lime flavored cheesecakes in a chocolate crumb crust the weekend before we left. Key limes are very tart and add a delicious flavor to a basic cheesecake batter. I used 6 individual tart pans to make my cheesecakes, but you could also use a 9 inch springform pan, or even 12 foil baking cups.
Buon Appetito!
Deborah Mele 2012
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Although my family loves just about any vegetable you could mention, we do have our favorites and beets are certainly one of them. There is just something magical that happens to a simple beet once it is roasted and all the natural sugars become caramelized. Although we love beets, for some reason, I have not roasted beets once since we returned from Umbria last fall. That changed this weekend after I visited our local fame’s market, and I found a large basket of gorgeous beets on... Read the whole entry »
I am going through a period of experimentation with multigrain flours and grains, and love the wide variety of both now available to us in almost every store. One of my new favorite ingredients is oat flour and I just love the texture it gives to baked goods, not to mention the nutritional value it adds. Although I’ve always been a big fan of muffins, they can often be very high in fat and calories and not be very nutritional. I am working very hard lately to avoid foods that are... Read the whole entry »
Roasted potatoes of every description are delicious as a vegetable side dish, but this potato dish uses small red skinned potatoes, and after rubbing them in olive oil they are tossed in a seasoned Parmesan cheese and breadcrumb mix before baking. The finished potatoes are creamy soft inside with a crisp, golden brown exterior. These potatoes would be a great side for any roasted meat, poultry, or seafood entree. I like to use Panko breadcrumbs for this dish as they stay very crisp, but any...
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When we are grilling meat for dinner, I like to use the grill for the rest of the meal as well. One of the easiest way to grill vegetables is layered on skewers that are lightly brushed with a seasoned olive oil marinade. I have a few different types of metal skewers which I prefer, but you can also use inexpensive wooden skewers also, just soak them in water for 30 minutes before you use them. You can use a variety of vegetables including red, yellow, or orange peppers, zucchini or summer...
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Risotto made with wild mushrooms is a great side dish for grilled or roasted meats, or is also wonderful used as a special first course. This recipe can be varied easily by adding some crumbled cooked sausage meat, by substituting red wine for the white wine, beef broth for the chicken broth, or by drizzling the top of the risotto with just a few drops of reduced balsamic vinegar. I am lucky enough to by able to buy packages of mixed wild mushrooms both here in the US and in Umbria, but a... Read the whole entry »
I am not ashamed to admit that I am a risotto snob, and never order risotto when we are dining out because it rarely meets up to my high expectations. A really good risotto should be really creamy but the individual grains should still have just a little bite in them. You do not want a hard rice center, but instead the grains should be just “al dente”. I lived in Milan for over 8 years which is the home of the risotto, and after tasting some of the best risotto dishes in the...
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Since my Birthday contest giveaway was such a great success, I decided to run one more for Valentine’s Day! For this contest which will run through until midnight February 14th, I am very excited to be giving away an amazing 7-Quart Bowl-Lift Residential Stand Mixer generously donated by the wonderful folks at KitchenAid. (MSRP is $549!)
I personally couldn’t live without my KitchenAid stand mixer and use it for everything from making pasta, kneading dough, grinding meat and... Read the whole entry »
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