A Blithe PALATE

The Pregnant Pause...

Many of my wonderful blog friends were noting my...ahem...lack of posts the last few months and asked me about the downturn.  They were very supportive when I told them the reason why I had slowed down my manic eating, cooking, and writing.  And there was a reason, other than those enumerated back in September. 

Might I introduce you to the reason why?

Foodie world, meet Puggle (his nickname -- after a baby platypus, not the pug/beagle designer mutt mix).  Puggle in utero was a gourmand -- he gave me heartburn every time I attempted to eat fast food or prepared foods.  He wanted fresh and made to order gourmet.  As it happens, he dined at Gordon Ramsay's Petrus, had scones and tea at Wimbledon (from our London trip back in July), dinner in Paris and has sipped champagne and dined on caviar to bring in the New Year -- so all in all, for someone who's only 7 days old, he's managed quite a culinary bit in utero.  Ex utero, it appears he hasn't changed much.  He likes all organic and natural and he takes his time savoring every meal. 

I swear I won't do (too many) pureed dishes.

Hazelnut and Chocolate Bread Pudding

Our friend Jared loves hazelnuts.  I personally would never have made anything with hazelnuts in it were it not for him.  It wasn't something I grew up eating, and not being a fan of liqueurs (therefore missing out on Frangelico) I was ignorant to its tastes and flavors until he mentioned how much he loved hazelnuts a few years back.  Since then, whenever we have him over for dinner, I try to include a hazelnut dessert.  Some previous sweets have included a hazelnut parfait on cinnamon shortbread; a hazelnut mousse cake; a hazelnut genoise with Frangelico buttercream; and a Frangelico Honey Panna Cotta.

It's actually kind of fun:  searching for, or creating, ingredient-specific dishes.  Like Jenn and bread pudding.  Now, bread pudding is another thing I didn't grow up eating.  Something about bread soaked in custard then baked just sounds...icky.  Happily, if it's made right, it's actually quite yummy and my first bread pudding foray was really enjoyable.

Before Jared left on his latest trip, Hubby and I had a chance to have him over for a belated New Year's Eve dinner together and I made this for dessert:  a hazelnut and white chocolate bread pudding.

Now here's the weirdo thing:  I clearly remember making this dish...but I don't remember how.  I swear.  It was as if I made this dessert in a vacuum.  I know it included hazelnut liqueur, a super rich creme anglaise, white chocolate, brioche that I had purchased from Star Provisions in Atlanta and fresh roasted hazelnuts, but that's about as far as I can remember.  Occasionally this happens.  I'll make a dish on the fly and I won't recall technique or ingredients.   Sometimes I can't remember how it tasted.  For four years I've been trying to duplicate a pasta and gorgonzola cream sauce recipe that a friend swears I made for her -- but I have no recollection of such a dish.  Does this happen to you?

And I promise you:  despite the New Year's festivities, my alcohol intake consisted of a few sips of champagne.  I'm temporarily teetotaling.  I do remember that the dessert was really moist and rich -- but I'm seriously flabbergasted that I wouldn't be able to replicate the dish if my life depended on it!

If anyone has a recipe that duplicates the ingredients, I'd love it if you'd share it with me!

Heidi Swanson's Broken Lasagna with Walnut Pesto

It being easier to drive to Florida than to fly for a recent trip to visit the parents, I stocked my bag with plenty of cookbooks and magazines, one of which was the February issue of Food and Wine magazine. 

Having gorged myself on Mom's cooking the whole weekend (and earning my sister's enmity when I childishly IM'd her to gloat about the dishes that Mom was making for me), I was in a happy state of food bliss so reading about food on the road was perfectly apt.

Heidi Swanson, of 101 Cookbooks, one of my favorite food writers and bloggers, is featured in the magazine with several of her recipes, including one for Broken Lasagna with Walnut Pesto.   It sounded so dark, so delicious:  whole wheat pasta, walnut pesto, bitter greens and mushrooms... Knowing all we had access to on our trip home were fast food restaurants left me a bit grouchy but Hubby made good time in getting us home.

Having cleared the fridge over in anticipation of our trip, a quick trip to the grocery store  was needed to pick up mushrooms and arugula but upon returning home, I realized that the pantry lacked whole wheat lasagna, so I had to substitute with whole wheat fettucine.  Heidi's recipe is beautifully simple and quick -- perfect for two ravenous people whose sole nourishment on our 7 hour drive were some pastries that Mom made for us (a brief stop to McDonald's ended when we asked for a refund and left without food [long story].)

I've never thought to make pesto with other nuts but the walnuts are perfectly balanced against the bitterness of the greens and the dish, as I had imagined, has a flavorful smokiness to it that kept me coming back for more.

It's so nice when a recipe you read tastes exactly like how you hope it will when you finally make the dish...