Cooking for E

E.  E affectionately (and efficiently in the texting world) stands for Elizabeth, my dear friend and now, after many years of talking about it, my roommate.  How much fun we've had living together already, and it's only been a couple of months.  We talked tonight about putting a plan in place to alternate cooking for each other once a week.  I'm all for it!  I love cooking for someone, and E really wants to become more comfortable in the kitchen.  As I've learned, there's no other way to attain that comfort than putting on a cute apron and getting in there.  She's gonna do great.  And isn't she just gorgeous?  Cute apron is a total bonus.

I started us off tonight by diving into the Pioneer Woman's world with a bit of Foster's Market thrown in.  Ladies and gents, I have officially broken down one of my longstanding culinary barriers: homemade pizza dough.  I did it.  Yes, I did.  Thank you P-Dub for all the coaching.  Her recipe is just as simple as it seems, and while I did have to fight to stretch it out on my sheet pan, that's simply par for the course with pizza dough. The resulting crust served as the perfect foundation for the tomato basil toppings.  I opted for the "sauce" of pesto, and thanks to Trader Joe's, I had a flourishing basil plant to employ for my attempt at Sara Foster's recipe.  Now I know this is hard to believe, but Foster's pesto just might be a bit too heavy handed in the garlic department (gasp!  too much garlic...did Allyson really just write that?).  Still, heavy garlic or not, I love pesto.  Love, love, love all its green goodness.  I plan to use more of it as a dip of sorts for some parmesan breadsticks (yes, that's the second ball of pizza dough's destiny), and any remaining will be frozen in an ice cube tray for future pesto forays.  Hmm...sidetracked.  Need to circle back to the pizza.  One word: DELICIOUS.  Good ingredients equal good food.  A final note...do not, I repeat, do not use anything but fresh mozzarella.  Trust me. It makes all the difference.

Ok, after we each had our third slice of pizza (it really was that good), I whipped up PW's Berry Cobbler.  Berries are indeed in season, but I decided to utilize a bag of frozen berries from Trader Joe's.  Other than the texture of the blueberries, I was super happy with that decision.  There are a lot of cobbler recipes out there; this one leans more on the cake-y side, and that's just fine by me.  E and I both said that there is just something about the tart yet sweet berries, the sugary/buttery crust, and vanilla ice cream melting into every nook and cranny.  So good.

Summer Glory & the Ranger's Return

Hello out there, you faithful followers, wherever you are.  I know that some of you had just about given up on my blog.  I don't blame you.  As I have written before, I assure you that my recipe endeavors have not disappeared, but blogging about them certainly has been nonexistent the past eight months.  That ol' computer of mine is much to blame, and now I don't have that point of blame as I am working on a lovely HP computer that likens uploading pictures to batting an eyelash, whereas my ancient Dell dinosaur viewed any command as a menace beyond measure, making it near impossible to expedite even the simplest task, much less uploading a simple picture from my camera.  Seriously people, the first year of my blog took hours of begging and pleading with dear ol' Dell (RIP: April 28, 2011).

A distinctly happier HP now sits on my desk taking up much less space and simply inviting me to blog.  So here I am. And I'm not going to make any promises, but I am going to try to be more on top of this thing.  Really.  I also might broaden my musings...prepare yourselves.

But let's get to some food, shall we?  I'll begin with a dish that I made back in February: Ina Garten's Red Berry Trifle.  This dessert was a true test of my perseverance in the kitchen.  The cognac cream proved daunting with all the temperature issues.  My biggest tip is that if you're working on an electric stove, you must increase the heat as you stir the cream.  It will come to pudding consistency, but it must have more heat than Garten uses for her gas stove top.  Even with all the intimidation of pastry cream potentially turning into scrambled eggs, this dessert was a worthwhile showstopper--beautiful and delicious.  And how lovely to use a trifle bowl to its full aesthetic potential, thus necessitating two photos.

Just last night I made Giada's Fusilli with Spinach and Asiago Cheese for my friend Michelle who's visiting me from Knoxville.  As we dove forks into our respective portions, Michelle said it was "tricolore," an Italian term for any dish echoing the colors of their flag.  I'm gonna incorporate that word into my kitchen vocab, especially for when I create my next caprese salad.  This pasta is another good go-to from Giada's repertoire, one that absolutely depends on the distinct flavor of freshly grated Asiago.  It would pair nicely with some grilled chicken or Ina's oven roasted shrimp.  Oh, and be careful to use lower heat for the oil when sauteeing the garlic.  You can always turn up the heat, but once you've got burnt garlic, you've got to start over.

The last recipe to share with you is this marvel of the summer fruit stand: Strawberry Salad with Sugared Almonds and Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing.  My sister Ashley, a faithful fellow foodie, shared this recipe with me while I was in Knoxville the other week.  She puts a Mason jar in front of me with some pink substance in it and directs me to dip a spoon in and taste.  Instantly smitten.  The Strawberry Poppy Seed dressing is like a smoothie and will keep up to a week in the fridge.  When I made the salad here in Raleigh, I added crumbled gorgonzola cheese, but you could easily substitue blue cheese crumbles if that suits your fancy.  I also have some grilled chicken slices on top in case you are staring intently into the crevices of the picture(s).  Strawberries must be vain...they like having their pictures taken twice.

Stay tuned for more...yes, there will be more.