An Untraditional Easter Dinner......

I knew that I would be in no shape to cook today. I worked Thurs-Saturday preparing for a wedding. Yesterday was the actual wedding and I'm always exhausted when I get home. Standing on my feet and serving chicken cordon bleu with a choice of mushroom sauce or chipotle cream sauce ( and asking each person what they want and then explaining over and over what chipotle is) wears me out, not to mention the loading and unloading at the actual wedding site. Anyway, I cooked a bunch of things last Wednesday in preparation for today.

I did throw this foccacia dough together yesterday morning. This is the best damn foccacia I've ever made. The recipe comes from August 2004 of Fine Cooking and its Peter Reinhart's recipe( Bread Bakers Apprentice). It's a very wet dough that spends the night in the fridge for a long slow rise. The next day, you dump it on a parchment lined pan, dimple it and add more olive oil. Then it rises again for a few hours until its ready for the oven. It was so flavorful from the long overnight rise. My MIL couldnt stop eating it.





Back to Wednesday, I made 2 lasagnas. My MIL stays away from marinara sauce, so I made her a smaller lasagna with bechemal. I used the bechemal sauce from the latest issue of Cook's Illustrated. For Robin and I, I made a big batch of homeade marinara using San Marzano tomatoes that Robins friend brought us back from an Italian market in Windsor, ON. I used some bechemal on the bottom as well. Both lasagnas are spinach and mushroom.


I also made some hot fudge sauce . I loved this hot fudge, it will be my go to recipe from now on. I had bought some Hershey's single origin choc. bars that were reduced and they were perfect for this recipe. I threw together and ice cream pie using a ready made keebler crust and bryers light heath bar ice cream.

I also made a blueberry/raspberry pie for my MIL. I used the pillsbury crust and I swear I'll never do that again. I HATE the smell of them. They stink while they are baking( I know its the lard in the crust). Next time, I'll stick to the pate brise recipe that I normally use.

Italian wedding soup( Cuisine at home).....

I'm sure getting my monies worth from this magazine. This is the 3rd recipe I've made and I have a few more bookmarked.

First I made some mini meatballs( I used ground turkey). These chill in the fridge while you assemble the rest of the soup. I used some canned low-sodium broth because thats what I had. Of course, homeade stock would be a lot better. Onions, garlic, carrot and celery are sauteed. White wine is added first, then the broth is added with some oregano, bay leaf and red pepper flakes. The meatballs are dropped in to simmer. About 10 minutes later, fresh spinach and canellini beans go into the pot. The soup is finished with some tempered eggs. I cooked up some mini cheese tortellini for a hearter meal. This was very good. Even Robin loved it and she's not a soup fan. Although she did say " this is a far cry from the soup I was served as a child".