What I love most about special occasions is the opportunity to cook for people. Dinners, dessert, brunch. Last night I hosted Claire and Lee Ann, friends visiting from Toronto. We had grilled pizza, tortilla Espanola, prosecco, wine, and chocolate.
I find the preparation cathartic, and at times, meditative.
Tomorrow Lulu will join me for Easter lunch at the treehouse. The weather forecast is dreamy: low 80s with a splash of sunshine. My mind is aflutter with ideas for the menu. I’ll prepare a simple tomato sauce with cavatelli, and a spinach salad. Serve it with fresh bread.
One of my favorite food blogs, Pinch of Yum features a recipe for Miracle No-Knead Bread. It’s a crumbly mess, but according to Lindsay’s recipe in 12-18 hours the dough will be ready for the oven.
I’ve been itching to make a blackberry pie. Every recipe has the same formula for the filling: berries, sugar, flour, lemon juice. I decide to use honey instead of sugar, Balsamic vinegar instead of lemon. I macerate the blackberries then pour them into the pie crust.
Next stop the oven:
90 minutes later and the berries are piping hot:
Next up is sorbet, an ideal complement to pie. I devised the recipe for Clementine Prosecco Sorbet one day when I discovered a flat bottle of bubbly in the refrigerator. It goes like this: Heat up a simple syrup of water and sugar then let it cool; add clementine juice (or any citrus that makes you happy) and Prosecco to the syrup. Then refrigerate until cold. Add to ice cream maker and churn for 25 minutes until solid, freeze for 1-2 hours, and voila!
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