Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Crumpets

I made this recipe as a birthday gift for my sister's boyfriend, who is inexplicably obsessed with crumpets. I brought them to Sunday dinner at my grandmother's, intending to give them to him when everyone else gave him their presents after dinner, but they were gone before I even took my coat off.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Insalata Bianca in a Parmesan Cup

Oh boy, this month's Daring Kitchen challenge really focused on a weakness of mine - creativity. I can take a recipe and replicate it to a tee, and make all sorts of dishes come out great, but I really fail at being creative. Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com.

For the bowl, I went with my most comfortable medium - cheese, of course. And the best type of cheese I could think would harden into a bowl is parmesan. That was the easy bit. Then I figured it had to be filled with something cold, as anything hot would too quickly melt the cheese, so salad seemed the obvious choice. But I didn't want to go with a plain, green salad. Instead I made a marinated Insalata Bianca - a white salad with a variety of marinated white vegetables and lemon vinaigrette dressing.