Prosciutto and Melon Appetizer with Marcona Almonds

Ok, so technically, I didn't make this.  However, I did manage to put it together in just minutes for a little appetizer while I was making dinner.  It's the perfect appetizer, its quick, simple and SO, SO good.

I have had this many times before, but it finally became a staple on my Italian vacation with my husband.  We would step into a small cafe while shopping and sight seeing, and take a little break with wine and a plate of prosciutto and melon.  Every time I have it, it reminds me of our trip.

The key here is using good olive oil, aged prosciutto (the best you can afford but the 18 month aged is REALLY good) and fresh, in season melon.  We added a few marcona almonds for the side.  Marcona almonds are actually a spanish nut.  Oddly, they are grown in the worst soil conditions, but ironically grow these fabulous tasting almonds.

Prosciutto and Melon Appetizer with Marcona Almonds
1/2 pound prosciutto sliced very thin
1/2 melon skinned, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup marcona almonds (salted with oil)
Good quality extra virgin olive oil (I prefer Katz and Co.)

Directions:  Assemble on a plate, drizzle olive oil over the prosciutto.  Salt the melon with fleur de sel if desired.  Serve.

Dark Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Mousse Filling and Chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream Chocolate Shavings and Chocolate Covered Strawberries

The winter months are busy with birthdays in my family.  Last year, I had just given birth to my sweet baby G, so my husband had to deal with a bakery bought cake.   After pulling off an extraordinary 1st birthday party for my daughter, I knew my 'husbands cake' would be a simple task to pull off.

This time, I made a slight improvement:  I added homemade chocolate covered strawberries!  I also tried a new chocolate mousse recipe for the filling.  I used this filling because it didn't have raw egg in it, and a few readers have asked me for one.  This is definitely good, and a perfect alternative if you are serving this cake to small children, pregnant women, or anyone that may have a compromised immune system ;).  I have never had an issue with using raw eggs, but sometimes, you have to be extra careful.  I will say, while this is the perfect alternative, the other mousse recipe seems to be a bit more rich, chocolaty, and fluffier.

I used my go to chocolate cake recipe, in 2, 8-inch round pans.  Each layer was sliced in half to make 4 layers.  Each layer was filled with chocolate mousse.  The cake was frosted with Italian Meringue Buttercream, and topped with chocolate shavings and chocolate covered strawberries drizzled with white chocolate.  The end result?  Divine.  Just DIVINE!

Chocolate cake recipe, click here.

Chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream recipe, click here.


Dark Chocolate Mousse
recipe from Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients:
8 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 egg yolks, beaten lightly
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Directions:
In a small heavy bottomed saucepan, add chocolate, eggs, sugar, water, and 1/2 cup heavy cream.  Stir over medium heat until mixture starts to bubble a little along the edges.  Remove from heat and add put in a bowl.  Put bowl over an ice bath.  Cool for about 15-20 minutes.  Stir about every 5 minutes.

Beat remaining 1 cup of heavy cream until soft peaks.  Fold into the cooled chocolate mixture in 3 additions with a rubber spatula.  DO NOT BEAT, this will cause the cream to break down and cause this to become soupy.  Cover with plastic wrap, touching the mousse.  Cool for about 2 hours or up to one day.

*you can use this as a simple dessert and serve with whipped cream and berries or you can fill a cake with it.  It will fill one 8-inch round cake.  It will fill approximately 3 layers.

Rasberry Peach Basil Water

Summer is at it's height in Michigan. We have had so many 90 degree days it makes it hard to get out of the house...and I need to stay hydrated.

I gave up soda a long time ago. If I have one, I consider it a treat, but it's certainly not part of my daily routine to drink. I stick to water but sometimes that gets to be a bit monotonous. Since I'm not a fan of juice (too sugary for me) I'm really running out of choices!

Then, the lightbulb went on. My husband and I take a yearly trip to Calistoga Ranch, where we were married almost 3 years ago. One of our favorite bartenders makes fruit water daily. All he does is takes fruit, blends it, tops it with ice, then fills the jug with water. It's fabulous and refreshing...and it contains no sugar (well except from the fruit itself). I also manage to get a bit of my fruit serving in there, too! I've spent the summer experimenting.

Now, don't expect an 'in your face' flavor here. It's meant to be subtle. But it's definitely the ultimate summer refreshment!

Enjoying our water at the pool!

Raspberry Peach Basil Water
Recipe by: Cafe Coco

Ingredients
1 peach, pealed, pitted and diced
1 cup raspberries
5 basil leaves, muddled
Water/Ice

Directions:
In a blender, blend the peach chunks and rasberries until blended. Add to jug. Top with water and ice. Top with the basil leaves. Stir. Keep it in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. You can continue to top with ice and water.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I must say, I've been lucky to have a baby who takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. It gives me enough time to cool my jets, throw in about 3 loads of laundry and possibly consider baking something (or prep dinner).

Just after bringing home the baby, Food Network had a pie special that had my toungue wagging. I for one, am not a pie person. I never really cared for it, therefor, I haven't really made many pies! For some reason every pie on this show, I wanted to try. So I printed off most of the recipes and vowed that they would not collect dust.

My husband made a Costco run last week and purchased a huge 5 lb package of strawberries. We eat quite a bit of fruit, but eating 5 lbs of anything in a limited amount of time is pushing it. So when I was leafing through my pie recipes I figured, why not try a strawberry rhubarb pie! I've never prepared rhubarb and I am pretty sure I've never even had a strawberry rhubarb pie. So when I put little G down for her nap I decided to get started. I worked in stages so that if I got interrupted I could work in pieces. Luckily, the filling came together in minutes.

Now when I say, it came together in minutes, I have to admit--I cheated and purchased a pie crust. I've made my own pie crust before, but I do need a bit of practice. And since I have very limited time for just 'practice', I had no other choice but to use the store bought in this case if I was going to get this pie completed during one afternoon. Has anyone ever tried Trader Joe's pie crust?? If you haven't...try it! It's soo good. It tastes homemade and certainly not the cardboard taste of the Pepperidge Farm brand.

Hey, I told you...I have a baby. I'm all into a short cut if it's good!

The verdict? Despite the very 'rustic' look of the pie it was sooo good! (I won't go into details as to why--lets just say I forgot to add something and had to rip off the top and surgically put it back together). The crust was flaky and buttery. I really loved the raw sugar sprinkled on the top. The filling was just the amount of tart and sweet. I couldn't resist and cut into it before my husband got home. He's lucky I didn't eat the entire thing.

I can't believe I never make fruit pies...they are so easy!

For the recipe, click here!

TWD: Blanc-Manger

I always think about the ‘what if’s’. Like, what if I lost all my hair. Or what if I could live anywhere in the world.

I often leaf through Baking from My Home to Yours and think “What if I had my choice of TWD, which recipe would I choose?” The Blanc-Manger (pronounced blah-mahn-jay) topped my 'what if' list, mainly because of its creamy looking picture.

I was a bit disappointed this week, mainly in myself. I have been out of practice; I’ve been baking and making things I know how to do instead of broadening my skills. So it’s no wonder I made the simplest of mistakes. Dorie says in her book that this is a great recipe, especially for newlyweds learning to cook because it’s foolproof. Well, I am leaving the newlywed stage this August with my 2 year wedding anniversary…AND I bake…and this girl was totally fooled.

I have used gelatin many times before, and I never cease to have a problem. Even when heated, for some reason, I always find a gelatin clump somewhere. Ick. This time, I went too far in the cooling and the gelatin seized on me a bit. I know better. I should have put it back on the stove and put it back in the ice bath.

But it was 2:45. On Tuesday.

Yea…the day it needs to be posted. And I had to give myself cooling time, and get this photographed before dark (which didn’t happen due to a Costco run gone bad). So needless to say, I carried on, added the whipped cream and I had a mess on my hands. It was too late to turn back. So I folded in my beautiful, farm berries put it into my mini spring form pans and moved on with my day.

Thankfully I halved the recipe. But I’m just not a fan. Honestly, the gelatin portion was totally my fault and could be fixed and overlooked. But what throws me off is the texture of the ground almonds. I just don’t care for it. I usually leave any almond meal and the alike out of my recipes that are meant to be a smooth texture but in this case I really didn’t have much choice but to just go with it. I know many of the other bakers loved it so I figured; there is always a possibility of me turning over a new leaf. At least, that is what I hoped.

It’s such a shame because almonds ground or otherwise, are so good for you. I think I will just have to stick to whole almonds.

I will say that anyone that loves ground almonds would probably enjoy this. This recipe IS easy, despite my problems. I walked away from the chilling mixture for a few seconds too long. And I will say, hands on time, with assembly was less than 20 minutes. Just be sure to leave yourself 3 hours chilling time!

A special thank you to our host this week, Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy selected Raspberry and if you head over to her page you can get the recipe and see a much better photo of the finished product, and what it’s supposed to look like!

You can also check out what the other bakers were up to by checking out the TWD blogroll!

Next week’s TWD pick: Vanilla Ice Cream

Summer Berry Fruit Tart

I always go overboard at Costco on the fruit. I don’t know if it’s the huge lots of fruit staring at me in the face…or the prices.

And I can’t stop at the 12 lbs of strawberries; I get the blueberries, the raspberries, and the blackberries. Then I get home and I realize I bit off more than I could chew…no pun intended.

Most times, I freeze the extra fruit we can’t eat, but if I have the time, I LOVE to make fruit tarts. I’ve made a few over the years….none of which I documented. I have no idea which crust recipes I have used….and I have no idea which custard filling recipe I have used. So this time, I had to start from the drawing board.

I used Dorie’s sweet tart dough, because I have used it before and I knew it was good. For the filling, I didn’t follow ‘fruit tart tradition’ and fill it with pastry cream. I’m not a huge fan of pastry cream. I’ve never done it right and every time it just tastes too ‘egg-y’ for me. Instead I made a cream cheese filling which paired with the fruit nicely.

Surprisingly, this is super easy. You could make the tart a day or two ahead of time, the filling comes together in minutes, and then top it with fruit. Voila…easy weeknight dessert!

I served this up for when my mother in law came over for dinner….and everyone loved it.

It’s the perfect summer dessert!

Berry Tart

2 ½ cups berries, washed and dried

Tart Dough:
Visit Dorie Greenspan’s blog for the recipe from when she hosted the French Pear Tart. I used her recipe. It’s TAH-DIE for!

Cream Filling:
4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
4 oz. mascarpone cheese, room temperature
¼ cup sugar
1 ¼ cups Cool Whip topping

Directions: Beat the cream cheese, mascarpone cheese and sugar until well blended. Fold in the Cool Whip gently and fill the tart shell with the mixture. (If you don’t plan on assembling or serving until the next day, you can fold the Cool Whip in the cheese mixture when you are ready to fill)

Apple Crisp and a Delayed Thanksgiving Post

I'm so embarrassed to even post my Thanksgiving feast because I put it off, then forgot. Oops! My brother in law was so adamant that I post 'his' (really it's my Mother-in-laws ;) ) apple crisp so...I feel since the guy cooks once a year (at Thanksgiving because his job is to bring the apple crisp to my house) I felt I should at least give him some recognition.

The pictures in the post are from making this myself to show you the steps and process in making it, of course, I chopped the recipe in half!

Thanksgiving at our place went well! I am getting really good at hosting large gatherings and finally learning how to plan ahead and I am also learning to 'relax' at the party. I also enlist my family to help and everyone brings something, whether its a dish, wine, beer, whatever. Every bit helps and for that I am truly grateful.

The kitchen getting ready for the frenzy

Let the eating, BEGIN!

This is actually MY plate...I think I ate all of it. *burp* Excuse me! :)

Me and my two brother in laws...Nick OPEN YOUR EYES!

And....the dessert table! It was PUMPKIN GALORE!!! Surprised? I didn't think so..

My BIL, Nick...sleeping immediately after the tryptophan kicked in. lol

We had my BIL's new puppy, Bella, here also so she got to visit with her big cousin (our dog), Annie. Annie is slowly learning how to play nice with other dogs and share with Bella. Well... Sometimes. :)

The two playing in the yard...





I am utterly appalled that she even ALLOWED Bella into her room!

I can't wait to celebrate again with family at Christmas..."It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

Oh, right.. you are here for recipes...not my silly family stories.... here is the Apple Crisp Recipe!

Apple Crisp
Recipe by: Claudia M. , Nick M.

1 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 t. cinnamon
dash salt
1/2 cup butter

Mix above together until consistency of crumbs.

Peel and cut up enough McIntosh (I used Honey crisp..my FAVE!) apples to fill a 9x13 baking dish. 3-4 lbs.

Pour oat mixture over apples spreading evenly.
Bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes or until apples are done.