ITALIAN FOODIES

I’ve mentioned before that our breakfast isn’t the healthiest in the Italian foodie house. It always consists of a creamy cappuccino and something sweet on the side, hey we’re “ee- tal -ien”, well everyone else is except the one writing the blog:) We’re getting a bit sick of the croissants from the local shop and I’m even beginning to tire of my favourite Italian biscuits so I’m making a big effort to bake a bit more. Nothing fancy just something simple to have with coffee in the morning. I’ve made this lemon cake a few times and everyone loves it so it’s a keeper, I made choc chip cookies the other day and they were nice but not Italian foodie standard so I’m looking for the best choc chip recipe there is so let me know if you have one.

what you need:

 - 200g unsalted butter

 - 150g golden caster sugar

 - zest and juice of 1 lemon

 - 3 eggs beaten

 - 200g plain flour

 - 2 tsp baking powder

 - 50g ground almonds

 - 2 tbsp milk

what to do:

 - heat the oven to 180 degrees

 - line the base of a 900g loaf tin with baking parchment

 - cream the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy.

 - add the lemon zest.

 - gradually add the beaten egg and mix between each addition.

 - sift the flour and baking powder together and then fold into the cake mixture with the ground almonds.

 - add the milk and lemon juice and mix with a spatula until smooth.

 - spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for about 1 hour or until golden brown, stick a skewer or knife into the centre and if it comes out clean it is done.

 - serve with coffee, tea or cappuccino:)

The SIL makes a really good panettone but she adds vegetable oil to the mix which makes it really moist, I’m going to replace the milk with oil the next time and see how it comes out, I didn’t have any this time so it’s in my press now ready for duty. Up this week is a simple apple cake so stay tuned:)

Every morning myself and Bru disagree on how we like our cappuccinos, Bru is the official “cappuccino maker” as I make latte so I’m told so I’ve been fired(the cheek). He does make a great coffee but it’s always too cold for me and I have to put it into the microwave to heat it up, he drinks it a lot cooler like they do in Italy and I know this is the way it’s supposed to be drank but I prefer it hot. I think this is an Irish thing after all those years of drinking tea so just wondering how do you drink yours?? 

buon appetito!!

I have a confession to make in relation to my recession post, in case I inspired any of you to make changes or feel guilty about things that you buy, I have to come out and admit I fell off the bandwagon and bought not 1 but 5 food magazines this week. To make matters worse I actually bought the one I like the least(Food & Wine) twice, don’t ask!! I could have bought a new cookbook for this but the weather has been so bad and there’s nothing to do…………. PLEASE FORGIVE ME! I did make a really nice bruschetta with mushroom, spinach and goats cheese last night from Olive magazine and it was absolutely delicious so I don’t feel so bad now.

With the weather being so bad myself and the princess did a bit of baking again, if every summer is like this year she will become one of the best bakers in the world . I have never seen it so bad, it’s got to the stage where I am just thankful if we have a couple of hours without rain now, my dreams of seeing the sun have gone. It really hit me how bad it has been when we had a “little” sunshine the other morning and the princess had to cover her eyes when we went outside as it blinded her, it wasn’t even that strong but she’s just not used to it, it has been so grey:(

Anyway to brighten our day we made these delicious chocolate cupcakes and they were absolutely fantastic if I say so myself. Bru loved them and being Italian he’s not really into cupcakes and the likes so that’s telling how nice they were.

what you need:

 - 150g unsalted butter

 - 150g golden castor sugar

 - 2 large eggs lightly beaten

 - 1tsp vanilla extract

 - 115g self raising flour

 - 35g cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)

 - 1/2 tsp baking powder

 - 2tbsp milk

 - 1 tbsp cold coffee (I used espresso)

 - 50g melted chocolate

chocolate frosting

 - 30g unsalted butter softened

 - 100g icing sugar

 - 1 tsp vanilla sugar

 - 200g cream cheese

 - 2 tbsp cocoa powder

 - 1/2 tbsp hot coffee

what to do:

 - pre-heat your oven to 190 degrees and put your bun cases into a 12 hole tray

 - beat the butter and Castor sugar together with an electric hand whisk until light and fluffy.

 - gradually add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.

 - Sift the flour and baking powder and stir in with the cocoa. Add a pinch of salt.

 - add your milk, coffee and melted chocolate and mix well together.

 - divide between the paper cases and bake for 20 mins. Cool out of the tray.

 - to make the frosting just mix all the ingredients together, spread on top of the cakes and decorate with white buttons.

I’m surprised I actually had any mixture left after the princess and her interfering hands: 

Once again I was amazed by how easy it was to make them, I think we tend to convince ourselves that things are harder to do than they actually are. There is one thing I do hate though - THE WASHING UP, my lord there is some amount of cleaning up afterwards, this probably has something to do with a certain 22 month old though:)

buon appetito!

No, you are not seeing things, I actually did some baking this weekend. As you have probably guessed from my blog, baking would not be my forte, it’s not that I don’t like it, it just always seems to get pushed down on my “to do list”. Baking is definitely a luxury past-time in my life but with the princess getting older and already having a keen interest in cooking it will become a regular thing in the italian foodie house.

          
The weather was so bad on Saturday evening and we were pretty depressed ( 2 sad faces looking out  the window type of depression) as the new local park had opened after a long wait and we still couldn’t go because it was raining so bad. I was demented from colouring and jigsaws so I decided to give some “mammy and baby” baking a go and she absolutely loved it. I got her all dressed up in her chef’s outfit and sat her up on the counter beside me and basically let her run riot with her little wooden spoon. It was a bit messy and she was a bit high after all the “ummy” sugar and butter mix but she thoroughly enjoyed it. She was so excited watching the cakes cook but then declared “not like it” when I gave her one to eat, she basically ate the flower and stuck her fingers in the icing!

what you need:
this recipe is based on 2 recipes from Olive and Delicious magazine

 - 125g unsalted butter

 - 125g golden Castor sugar 

 - zest and juice of 1 lemon

 - 2 eggs beaten

 - 225g plain flour

 - 1 tsp baking powder

 - 100 ml milk

icing

 - 30g unsalted butter softened

 - 150g icing sugar

 - 1 tsp vanilla sugar

 - zest and lemon juice of 1 lemon

 - 150g cream cheese

what to do:

 - heat the oven to 180 degrees and line a 12 hole cake tin with your bun cases

 - cream the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy, she was afraid of the noise so I had to hold her hand and whisk with the other hand.

 - add the lemon zest, continue to whisk and hold hands and gradually add the egg.

 - sift together the flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture with a spatula.

 - add the milk and lemon juice and stir until smooth.

 - divide the mixture between the paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Cool in the tin for 5 mins and then transfer to a cooling rack.

 - to make the icing just beat all the ingredients together in a bowl and spread on top of the cakes and decorate with yellow flowers or white buttons.

I must say they were absolutely delicious and if you have never baked before and would love to try or you are a novice baker like me they are so simple to make. Just make sure you have you have the necessary baking equipment

• scales
• fairy cake tray
• electric mixer
• mixing bowl
• spatula
• wooden spoon
• sieve
• grater
• measuring jug

buon appetito!!

In La Cucina catering is a big part of our business, we do a lot of catering for UL and the local Industrial Estate. We also do private catering for parties at home -  christenings, birthdays etc. Last night we were invited to a “fancy schmancy” party at Federico Puccarello’s house(Argentian player on the Munster team) where we also did the catering which was a first for us to be eating our own food at a party. It was his wife Carlotta’s birthday and they are regular customers in both La Cucina and Bru’s parents restaurant La Piccola Italia so we know them quite well and were delighted they asked us to cater! Everybody loved the food and half the party were our customers anyway as a few of the team were there- Barry Murphy, Ian Dowling, Anthony Foley - such shameless name dropping;), the big names obviously weren’t there as they are in France. There was lots of rugby talk as you can imagine and it was really interesting to hear their opinions as to what’s going on in the World Cup, sorry but I didn’t get any gossip:)! There was lots of foodie talk too as the couple that own the Market Square restaurant were there and their Italian manager so lots of talk about the restaurant business and Italian food, my favourite past-time of course so we had a very enjoyable night!

My parents minded the princess last night so I decided to bake them a little cake yesterday, this recipe was in last month’s edition of Olive and looked so good I had to give it a go!

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 200g 70% dark chocolate.
• 90g unsalted butter plus extra for greasing
• 55g caster sugar 
• 2 eggs
• 150g ground almonds

WHAT TO DO:

 - heat the oven to 180 degrees.

 - butter and base line a 18cm non-stick springform cake tin.

 - put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and melt over a pot of simmering water.

 - use an electric mixer to beat the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy. Gently fold the melted chocolate and ground almonds into the egg mixture using a metal spoon. Pour carefully into the tin.

 - bake for 30 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

As moist as it looks we found it a little dry and had to have it hot with some ice-cream - it was too dry to eat alone but it was still nice though but not the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had by any means:)

BUON APPETITO!!

Just a quick post today as it’s been so busy this week, this weather is so good for the shop. The students are also back in UL so we had a big catering job for 60 today on top of being extra busy in the shop. I worked for my minimum wage today:) We have a wedding tomorrow, a black tie affair no less and of course nothing ready as usual. We are the worst 2 you could ever invite to a wedding, we are always late, actually we are late for everything. I don’t know how many times we have turned up at the end of the ceremony or didn’t even make the church which is what happened at the last wedding we were at a couple of weeks ago. We had a wedding in Killarney a couple of years back and of course we were late as usual, found the church, tore up the road in heels I might add, we could see all the people outside taking the photos etc so we tried to sneak in unnoticed. No one noticed alright because we were at the wrong bloody wedding!!By the time we got to the other church it was well and truly over!

We’re the same when it comes to the gift, which normally involves stopping in a corner shop on the way to the church to buy a card and stick some money in it and even at that we have left it in the car or worse still left it in my handbag resulting in a few past friends getting their wedding cards many months later - sorry to everyone we have done this to because there have been a few!! The last wedding in August I had to ring my mother on the way and ask her to run over to the shop and buy the card - I know, we are an absolute disgrace! This happens with everything- birthdays, baby gifts. I thought when I became a ”mamma” I might change and become more responsible and organised but I’m still as bad as ever. Do I have a card and a gift for tomorrow - OF COURSE NOT!! We’ll just buy it on the way:)

Amongst all the chaos of this week I managed to make this lovely berry tart from this month’s Delicious magazine. I tend to shy away from making desserts and sweets as I always think they are more difficult than they are and every time I make one I’m surprised at how easy it actually is. This recipe is so easy and perfect for anybody who thinks like me and never make anything sweet, this is your chance to change:)

WHAT YOU NEED:

• icing sugar for dusting
• sheet of puff pastry - I used one of the Jus Roll sheets from the 2 pack
• 250g tub mascarpone
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 400g strawberries
• 200g rasberries
• 250g blueberries or blackberries
• mint leaves - optional( I hate mint with food, mint is for Mojitos and that’s it but I used them for “display purposes only” and then I picked them all off:)

WHAT TO DO:

 - preheat the oven to 200 degrees

 - dust a work surface with icing sugar and roll out your puff pastry with a rolling pin

 - place on a large non-stick baking tray and prick the pastry all over with a fork. Bake for 15 mins until golden brown and risen.

 - Using a fish slice flip the pastry over, then press down all over to flatten. Bake for a further 5 mins and transfer to a wire rack to cool down completely.

 - in a bowl mix the mascarpone and vanilla extract ( I think a little sugar wouldn’t have went astray here also)

 - spread it over the pastry and arrange your fruit on top.

 - sprinkle some icing sugar over the fruit and decorate with mint leaves if you like.

 - serve and enjoy the gasps of approval!!

BUON APPETITO!!

p.s. This is my submission for a great blogging event called “IN THE BAG” which focuses on seasonal ingredients, this months theme is fruit.

Ok it’s official I’m gone baking mad since I had this baby. I’ve always cooked but never really bothered baking but to Bru’s delight it’s my new hobby. I started with fairy cakes, then went onto cookies, then muffins and today I made my masterpiece - A STRAWBERRY AND MASCARPONE TARTand I have to say it turned out delicous. I am going to get sooooo fat, no size zero’s in this house. I’m supposed to be losing the muffin top not adding one.

Anyway it was so easy to make and would be perfect as a dessert for a dinner party as you can make it that day and it doesn’t require any cooking (good times). All you need is the following:

 - 9″ cake tin with the pop out base (I got mine in TK MAXX for only 4.99 - BARGAIN!!!

 - 250G OAT COOKIES OR DIGESTIVE BISCUITS - I used the oat cookies for a change, got them in Superquinn

 - 250g STRAWBERRIES SLICED THINLY

 - 1 TBSP(DESSERT SPOON) CASTER SUGAR

 - 1 LGE EGG

 - 2 DROPS VANILLA EXTRACT

 - 250G MASCARPONE CHEESE

 - 75g BUTTER

HOW TO MAKE THIS FABULOUS TART!!!

CRUMB - melt the butter in a saucepan

            - put biscuits into a plastic bag and beat the crap out of them with a rolling pin until they are powder ( good for stress relief, I would never imagine it’s bru’s head. 

            - mix with melted butter and spoon into the tin, smooth and press firmly but not too hard. Put into fridge until base is set.

 FILLING - seperate the egg and put yolk in bowl with sugar and beat until thoroughly mixed. ( takes a few seconds)

              - beat in mascarpone until you have a custard coloured cream. I just did it with a dessert spoon.

              - beat egg white with small whisk until it’s stiff???? and fold into marscapone.

              - spoon onto biscuit crust and place sliced strawberries on top and refrigerate.

The verdict - “my best one yet”  Nigella, watch your back girlfriend!!! 

p.s. this is a Nigel Slater recipe!!