Random Recipes - Lasagne di Pollo e Funghi Misti

Well, I'm feeling like the wedding guest that sneaks in the side door of the chapel just as the couple kisses and the congregation applauds! Quick! Someone give me a handful of rice, damn it!

Random Recipes for March

This random recipe post has been one long search for the 'osso buco'  (my first and real random recipe) that is not here in my little New Hampshire backwater ... so I turned to another random page in the same cookbook and came up with a tomato mushroom sauce that is a main component in lasagna with mushrooms and chicken.

Saturday Snapshot (s) ... A Place I Remember

From the footbridge across the valley from Neuschwanstein

In Germany, many of the natives think of this place as their version of Disneyworld. It ranks up there with Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the Rhine Valley, and Ocktoberfest in Munich. Every tourist coming to Germany has Neuschwanstein flagged as a 'must see' in their tour books ... and we were no different. It's a facade, though, when you really learn a bit about it. It is a shell of a grand castle with only a small part of the interior made complete... a mad project begun by a prince who felt he had deep pockets and whims that could never be emptied or challenged. He ended up dead ... drowned mysteriously and the castle was left unfinished. It's darker history also includes a stint as a huge repository for artworks and treasures lusted over, confiscated, stolen, and stored by the Nazis during that horrific WWII period.  Those artworks have since been liberated and some returned where they belong, others placed in museums ... and the castle has been turned into a major tourist destination. It's in a lovely area of Germany, near the German-Austrian border ... and once I got over the awe at such a massive princely whim, I looked around at other more awesome sights ...

Lemony Chicken Soup

When the kids were really small, I made soups for them all the time ... lunches usually consisted of soup and crackers and little sandwiches or tiny bowls of chopped up fruit or pieces of cheese and ham bits. The sides changed a lot, but the soup remained a constant. They would come in from the back yard sandbox and swingset with rosy cheeks and chilly hands, get a wash-up, and climb up onto their chairs to gobble lunch and play with their 'little guys'  - then it was time for an afternoon nap and some quiet page-turning or make-believe in their rooms before a bit of Winnie the Pooh or Mr. Roger's Neighborhood or Sesame Street on the television.

Ina Garten's Garlic-Roasted Cauliflower

When one is trying to follow a Weight Watcher's regimen, vegetables are good friends! Consequently, I have been digging around for good vegetable and fruit recipes that are lighter and more diet friendly ... got a winner here! Ina Garten's latest, how easy is that?, has given me this newest approach to cauliflower.

Apple Tart

A mini-tart for a small homecoming ... SB and my brothers were hiking up around Mount Cardigan for the past couple days. What started out as a nice Spring hike turned into a windblown, cold, and raw slog up over and along the ridge of Cardigan and on to its sister peak. They had a good time and stayed in a lodge, so the 'roughing it' was minimal, but they sure looked happy to be back where it's warm and snug ... in my kitchen.

Making Madeleines ... with Maple Syrup

Here's one for my culinary bucket list ... the petite sweet cake/cookie that is shaped like a long shell ... the sweet Madeleine. I have always thought these French confections were difficult to make. Yes, they need a dedicated pan with the shell design for forming their distinct shape. Yes, one must whip the heck out of the eggs and sugar before carefully folding in the rest of the batter ingredients. Yes, one must chill the batter for a couple hours. Yes, one must be careful about leveling the batter in the pan's shells and watch for the perfect golden crust to form around the edges. But, really? It was no big deal.

Saturday Snapshot - Lord of the Manor

Meet Penny ... top cat around the grey cottage these days. He's getting a bit big for his britches as he grows through his kitty adolescence. Can you tell that he has major attitude?  Yup ... he's got it and then some!

Penny was born in a basket on our couch last Spring and has since made the couch his throne. He climbs to his spot numerous times during the day to lord it over us as we sit with books, nap away an hour or two, or lounge about with a glass of wine and a laptop or puzzle ... what a distinguished presence he's becoming.

To see other's Saturday Snapshots, visit Alyce's blog - at home with books  ... it's always a fun Saturday morning tradition to look at what's inspiring other bloggers and add your own little snapshot with a bit of commentary! Simply link up a post of your own and leave Alyce a comment informing her of your participation ... oh yeah, and a bit of a comment on her contribution!

Basque Cod ... and Elena Arzak

Basques had been crossing the ocean since the Middle Ages, voyaging to the rich cod fisheries of the Grand Banks and pursuing whales into the treacherous sub-Arctic waters off Greenland. Indeed, John Cabot's celebrated discovery of Newfoundland in 1497 was greeted by the Basques with something approaching wry bemusement, for it was hardly a new-found-land, two of their own captains having dropped their anchors off the very same coast over a hundred years before.  - Mark Mills in Amagansett

This week, I have had my nose in a couple books. In one particularly good mystery novel, I came across this quote. It reminded me of reading Mark Kurlansky's book, Cod - A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World. Kurlansky writes extensively about the importance of the Basque fishermen's discovery of the Grand Banks. The codfish became such an important sea harvest that it played a dominant role in the development of the European rush to colonize the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Salted cod became a staple of naval stores and fed many a sailor, as countries like Spain, France, and Great Britain made their marks on the world beyond their countries' immediate political borders. To this day, salted cod is an important ingredient in Basque and Catalonian cuisine.