Tag: 4 stars

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Macaroni Gratin

It’s worth bringing out the good china!

Doesn’t Macaroni Gratin sound nice and fancy? Something you might get at an upscale restaurant. Of course, you and I know that Macaroni Gratin is pretty much Mac ‘n’ Cheese. Well, not that neon yellow sauce- coated macaroni that some pass off as Mac ‘n’ Cheese (yes, of course, we’ve had that kind, too). This recipe for Macaroni Gratin is far more upscale, and you wouldn’t really make it for the kiddies, either, as you definitely need to put effort into making this version.

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Vanilla Macarons

Ooh, la la! So French!

We’ve been wanting to make macarons for ages. We’ve looked at recipes. We’ve copied down some of them. We’ve read the tips for perfect macarons. We’ve had them in French bakeries. We’ve just never made them before. Why? Is it that they seem impossible to make? Nah, that won’t stop us from trying. Besides, plenty of people have made macarons. The real reason is more mundane: we’ve not had fine enough almond flour. You see, normally we make our own almond meal/flour from whole almonds by grinding them in a food processor; but, that makes a moderately coarse flour, too coarse for macarons. So, they fall by the wayside. We’ve waited long enough, so let’s make some macarons!

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Worth the trouble?
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Potato Frittata (Frittata di Patate)

With just a few staples: dinner!

When we get back from a trip, our cupboard is pretty bare. Before we leave, we try to eat all the fresh produce and anything that might spoil while we’re gone, so, when we get home, there’s very little in the refrigerator or on the shelves to make a dinner. At times, we think that maybe we should just order out a pizza and worry more about making meals later. But, during our travels, we’ve been eating out most nights; the last thing we want to do is get some sub-par takeaway food. With a little thought, we come up with something that will keep us filled and fueled.

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Shaping Sacchetti

shaping sacchetti
shaping sacchetti
Cute, cute, cute!

This is the shape of the pasta that we had at Roma Antica in San Francisco a few weeks back. We tried to make them when we made our Pear and Cheese filling for pasta, but we had problems. First, we tried filling round pieces of pasta, but, our pasta sheets were too thick, resulting in a lot of bunched up pasta at the top. Fortunately for you, and us, we’ve figured out the kinks and are ready to show you how to make these cute little bags of filled pasta.

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Candied Pecans

candied pecans
candied pecans
Salty, sweet, and crisp!

We’ve had a lot of pickle recipes lately, but you probably don’t want to live on pickles alone. Neither did the people at the very small luncheon we catered, so we made sure to have something a bit more snacky. We figured that, if we were running late setting out the food for lunch, people could munch on these nuts we placed on the table. We don’t know anyone who doesn’t like nuts (we really do, but we can’t understand it).

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Pecan Macaroons

pecan macaroons
pecan macaroons
Crispy outside, chewy inside.

Sometimes we just have to try something new. Change out one ingredient for something similar and see what happens. Who knows when we’ll hit upon the next big thing?

So, this is really nothing more than a variation on our Almond Macaroon recipe. A simple swap out of almonds for pecans. But, there are a few things you might want to watch out for, as we’ll see in a bit.

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Lyonnaise Onion Soup

Lyonaise Onion Soup

Lyonaise Onion Soup
A good use for a surfeit of onions.

The other day, we noticed that some of our onions were starting to go bad. Not really bad, as in, you have to throw them out, but just getting soft, or needing several layers peeled off before use. To us, that meant we needed to find a use for a lot of onions, fast. We trimmed a couple and placed them in a bag in the refrigerator to use later in the week and selected out the ones that looked the best for later use, but, we still had three medium onions to use, ideally that day. We thought about Alsace Onion Tart, but then we remembered we had a recipe that covered two French onion soups, a Normandy Onion Soup, and this one, Lyonnaise Onion Soup. Don’t worry, fellow scratcher, we’ll tell you how to make both.

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