mix not match beets salad

Mix not match beets salad anybody?  Raw chioggia beets (sliced) + cooked red beets (diced) + avocado (diced) + lettuce leaves + lemon Meyer dressing + chives. An interesting mix of textures, colors, and perfumes.

vivalafocaccia.com - 2

Variations sur le meme theme..... Same recipe as the one posted 2 weeks ago + some cherry tomatoes on top. If you like focaccie, you have to try one or another recipe from vivalafocaccia.com: a 100% reliable blog.

fried zucchini flowers

I have been growing some Italian zucchini  in my backyard this year (a special type called trombetta). The zucchini are still too tiny to be eaten. However,...  there are the flowers! Eat them raw, eat them baked, eat them fried, whatever you like, but EAT them! They are too good to let them go. And by the way, you don't have to grow zucchini to get flowers, you can buy them at the Farmer's market when they are in season (now).

homemade buns

My youngest daughter just came back from a girls scout camp. And guess what? She wants to "cook out". I had some sausages in the fridge but no buns. And anyway in the stores I can't find any buns made without high-fructose corn syrup. So let's bake some. The Big Sur Bakery recipe will do the job (even though it's for hamburger buns). And yes, the recipe did it! Deliciouuuus!!!

stonefruit yogurt cake (+cornmeal/walnut streusel)

It has been a while since I posted a dessert recipe. Not that I don't bake desserts anymore, or that I don't eat them (event if I shouldn't). It's rather because I keep on baking the same desserts over and over. But this is a new recipe. So here I come again! This cake is wonderful. And so are all the recipes I tried so far from the book DIY Delicious, by Vanessa Barrington*, a must have cookbook if you are in a "do-it-yourself" or "do-it-from scratch" mood.

carrot almond spread

A quick and easy recipe from "Delicious Living" (Whole Food's magazine, July 2011). A nice addition to your sandwiches, wraps, bagels....

stuffed summer squash

Last Monday, Farmer Pete had too many squashes, so he told us -his lucky customers- to take as many as we wanted. I took a lot. Really a lot. After making a big pot of soup and a good-sized bowl of ratatouille, there were still some left. In fact I kept the cute spherical ones for last. I didn't know yet what to do with them but I was pretty sure that I would end up doing something nice. These "stuffed summer squash" are inspired by the "verdurine ripiene" we usually eat during summer in Italy at my in-laws'. 

vivalafocaccia.com

I love focaccia. Especially the "real" focaccia "Genovese". I used to make a recipe I already wrote about (here, a very quick and easy one). This time around, I tried a recipe from the vivalafocaccia.com blog. It's an exhaustive blog written both in English and Italian. I wanted to try one of its recipes since long time ago, but never found the right moment to do it. The blogger's family used to have a bakery in Genova. He adapted the original recipes for  home use. Most of the recipes have an accompanying video (among them: the focaccia's). Useful for the newbies. The result was very convincing. The only weak point was the crust: a little bit too soft for my taste. But this could have been due to my poor execution.

+ Ricetta in italiano

+ Recipe in English