Late July and August may not be the best time to visit Italy between the soaring temperatures and gaggles of tourists. But, then again, there really isn’t ever a bad time to be here. We are having an amazing trip. Here are a few shots from our first few days, spent in Rome, to give you just a taste.

[above: from our flat in Rome]

[above: Morning at a civilized 10am, at the market right out side our flat]

[above: Lunch is an escape from the heat in Trastavere with a fresh Insalata de Melone and fresh anchovies.]

[above: Cole has been enjoying her new camera taking in her own views of the city. We all enjoyed a bit of relief from the heat as an afternoon storm moved in.]

[above: walking through the Palentine and Forum instead of joining the long lines for the Coliseum. We are heading back to Rome sometime this month to see a few more of the traditional sites we skipped on this quick tour.]

[above: quiet moments]

[above: the market in Campo di Fiori]

[above: on our way to Firenze, we stopped into Parona, a small village off the beaten track, for lunch.]

PS: I’m posting over a cell phone connection which is a bit tricky… so sorry about the closed comments earlier! Something must have gone wrong in the posting. Comments should be open now!

Tonight I was supposed to be cooking snails. Or spot prawns. Or rabbit. Or one of many other dishes that I can’t quite tell you about yet. What I can tell you is that there is a lot going on. And this recipe isn’t supposed to be one of them.

See, sometime back March, I started getting busy. So busy, in fact, that I didn’t want to say anything for fear that I would jinx it. Good things were happening… things like shooting photos for cookbooks and hearing back from clients that I hadn’t heard from in a while. And, now, I’m in the midst of shooting my third and fourth cookbook (only the photos are mine), I have a 3 page spread in the most recent Seattle Metropolitan Bride & Groom, loads of shots in the new Edible Seattle, and a bunch of new photos coming soon to Epicurious, to name a few. Oh, and did I tell you, I have to get all that done before the 25th? Because (drumroll please), we are going on vacation. A real vacation. An unbelievable vacation. Italy. For 5 weeks. Yes. 5 weeks. That’s 35 days. 840 hours. 50,400 minutes.

Anyway, I’ve spent the day shooting (with the help of my new friend and assistant, Claire Bloomberg ) to try to get cookbook #3 finished up before I turn into a zucca, and really should have been testing one of the other recipes this evening. But then it occurred to me that well, some of you still might be out there wondering what had happened to me and if I got swept away with the tumbleweeds that have been blowing around here. So, instead, I took a break. Which is to say, I cooked something and took photos of it for myself instead of someone else. And, for me, I decided to make a little breakfast for dinner. Or, perhaps a little desert for dinner, depending on how you look at it.

My mom used to make dutch babies, and we’d have them with freshly sliced peaches. This recipe, isn’t hers, but my guess is that it is pretty darn close. I found it on the Whole Foods website after 15 minute flipping through indexes of my cookbooks didn’t give me what I was looking for. The batter is about as simple as it gets… equal parts flour and milk with eggs, whipped smooth but not too fluffy. Poured into a cast iron skillet over melted butter and stuck into a hot oven and you have a show that is more entertaining than 90% of what is on TV these days. Seriously, I was so mesmerized watching the batter puff up… like someone was blowing into it in little spurts. Every few seconds, another quick puff. I even had to go grab my camera and take a shot of the magic… of course, like all good magic, it stops as soon as you try to record it. Or, in my case, as soon as I opened the oven door. Luckily, it was just about done puffing anyway.

You can top a dutch baby with any kind of fresh or stewed fruit. Or even just a little squeeze of lemon. But, I’ve been craving a vanilla apricot sauce since I had a vanilla apricot jam a few weeks ago. And, of course, it’s apricot season here in Seattle.

PS: I am so excited about our Italy trip and we already have probably more than 5 weeks of stuff to do… but I’d love to hear suggestions if you have them! We will mostly be in Umbria.

Last week, I got the range of my dreams. I’ve been pining away for a commercialesque gas range now for about as long as I can remember. Some people dream about their wedding dress or owning a fancy car. I dream about cooking with gas. I have pretty much always made do with a simple electric range… there was that one span in college when the apartment came with a old, white enamel gas stove from the 50s which put out about as much heat as a few votive candles huddled together for warmth. I’ve managed to cook up some pretty amazing stuff with the electrics too. But always there was a longing for something industrial and packed with BTUs. In April, we had natural gas run to the house. We were just doing the furnace (which like many older Seattle homes was still running on oil). The stove would have to wait. Then, work picked up, and suddenly Cam and I decided, hey… let’s just bite the bullet and get the stove. At long last, my stove was coming home.

Of course, nothing is all that simple. To begin with, I had to figure out what stove I wanted. It became pretty clear to me pretty quickly that the Viking I had been envisioning was not a great choice. Although fit and finishwise, they are gorgeous machines, even a little bit of digging and you’ll soon see that they tend to be ultra prone with problems. That research lead me to Wolf and DCS, which subsequently lead me to a company called Bluestar. Although not available (at least at the moment) in the dual-fuel version I was hoping for, everyone who had a Bluestar was in love. To start with, they are one of the least expensive high-end ranges you can get, and have the most powerful cooktop, with a blazing 22,000 BTUs. I was pretty sold, until I went and looked at one that is. Cool and industrial, definitely… but the fit and finish started to scare me. The oven didn’t feel like it closed quite tightly enough and had some sharp edges. The open burners intimidated me as I thought of my panache for boiling over. While in the store, we stumbled across the American Ranges. These ranges have a similar price point to the Bluestars, but have closed burners with an easy to clean stainless top, and the oven is the largest in its class… easily able to fit full sized commercial baking pans. The edges were smooth all around, and while the burners weren’t quite the same as the Bluestars’, 17,000 BTU seemed like plenty for me (and about the same as the Wolf, DCS and Vikings). We went home to do more research, happily finding that American Range owners are nearly as religious about their stoves as the Bluestar owners. We were sold.

To get the stove in with the necessary duct work required some semi-serious kitchen demolition that included very large holes in the ceiling, cabinets, and eventually brick work. Amazingly, thanks mostly to Cam, it all came together, and after just over a week with chaotic kitchen construction, I ended up with one kick-ass stove and some killer ventilation to boot. Of course, before I got a chance to use it, we left town.

But, finally, I’ve fired up the gas and started searing away. While my first meal on it wasn’t so much a great test (pasta and sauce on top with a zucchini gratin baking in the oven), tonight’s dinner was made for this stove. At the Pike Place market, I picked up four enormous sea scallops to sear. Just a little smoked sea salt, aleppo pepper and olive oil, one really hot frying pan and enough patience to let each side sear before touching them (this is always the hardest part). Topped with a little mango and green garlic salsa… yum.

It was supposed to be a good day today. April is looking to be jam packed, but here at the edge of winter, today was supposed to be a quiet one. I had nothing to do but whatever I wanted. How often does that happen?

Then, I got some really crap news and everything went all topsy turvy. Stuff that I’m hoping, like the weather that has just rolled in after a lovely blue sky morning, will simply blow over after a good night sleep. Stuff I’m hoping that I’ll never really be at a point that I’ll have to tell you about it. Stuff that I’ve at least for a little while pushed aside and to bake these lovely little raspberry upside down tea-cakes that I saw in my latest Donna Hay acquisition, Off The Shelf: Cooking From the Pantry. I really kind of bought the book for this recipe. It’s one of those things you look at and say, now, why didn’t I think of that?!? This book is simply full of recipes like that… quick, delicious things you can make from stuff you probably have on hand in the pantry or in the freezer.

Anyway, so I made these cakes to take my mind off the crap news. And, then, I got to eat the yummy tea cakes to take my mind off the crap news. And then, I had to go and spin for 2 hours to work off the crazy crap news cakes. So, here I am. Still pretty topsy turvy. But, at least I still have some upside down cakes to keep me company.

I hope you made it to Design Sponge last week to see Bea’s beautiful recipes. I have to say when I saw her lovely post appear, knowing full well that mine would be up next, I was quite nervous because I knew I’d better come up with something good to follow! While my sesame-vanilla ice cream may not have the same eye-poppingly gorgeous spring colors, I can promise you that the recipe is well worth trying.

If you haven’t been to Design Sponge before, you are definitely in for a treat. So much to browse through and add to your secret desires list. I am very excited that Kristina asked me to be a little part! You can find the ice cream recipe and a little more about it here.

First, it was making my own lard. Now, I’ve gone and bought myself a deep fryer! What’s next? I’m pretty sure it’s moon pies and Dr. Pepper.

Anyway, the deep fryer arrived this afternoon and I happen to have a lotus root that I had been hoping to make into chips. A few minutes later, after the gallons of oil I had to use got hot, I had super crispy chips, warm and not even a little greasy. The good news is that once the oil cools down, it can be reused a few times. Chips, fries, sopapillas, tempura… oh, my list of things to make is growing and growing. I really don’t have a recipe today… just had to share a little deep-fry love with you. Yes, I am that much of a food geek.

 

A few years ago, if you had asked me what my favorite restaurant in Seattle was, I could have answered without hesitation. This is pretty unusual for me… I’m not one that easily compares things. I don’t have top 5 favorite albums or foods or movies. There are things I like, and things I don’t like, but putting them in order just seems beyond me. There are too many factors to weigh in… my mood, what I’ve been doing lately, who I’m with. So, it was odd that Osteria La Spiga always seemed to strike me as my favorite.

La Spiga was a tiny little, rustic in a kitschy sort of way, place tucked into the corner of shops along the south end of Broadway just before the “pill hill” where almost all of the hospitals in Seattle are situated. Service was always a little hit or miss, but the food, traditional Emilia-Romagna fare, was stunning. Handmade pastas with the perfect tenderness to make me swoon, slow-cooked meats which were fall off the bone tender, an affatatti misti plate with whisper thin proscuitto and other delights. But the one thing that drew me back over and over was the flat bread. Piadina is like a thick, tender flour tortilla, but with more flavor and bite. The little cut triangles of the warm bread are a perfect match for the prosciutto or cheese, or, even better, stuffed with goodies like fresh mozzarella, basil, wild mushrooms and truffle oil, and called a Crescione which in my mind translates to “food of the gods.” I could eat the flat bread, just plain and simple, piece after piece after piece if no one were around to stop me.

A couple of years ago, La Spiga moved from its funky and charming location to a new space that is about as different as is possible. Where the old location was always quite cramped, the new restaurant soars with double height ceilings and huge wooden beams, and at least 5 times the seating. The old place had a faux old world feel, while the new is warmly modern. The old location usually had one waitress or waiter for the whole room, where the new location seems to have staff winding their way around tables everywhere you look. It’s just as crowded as ever, but now there are pleasant places to wait instead of having to loom over the other diners. It’s truly a beautiful work of architecture.

The one thing, luckily, that hasn’t changed is the food. The menu may have grown along with the space, but my taglietelle ragu is as good as ever and I’d be hard pressed to find anyone that didn’t coo over the Filetto al Tartufo, butter knife tender filet drizzled with truffle oil. And then, there is the piadina. Yes, it’s still there and as good as ever.

These days though, when asked what my favorite restaurant in Seattle is, I hesitate. I still love La Spiga. I love the new space, the prompter service and the gorgeous food. But, still, I miss the old spot. I loved how its funky space and slowish service made you step back, slow down and stop worrying about what you were going to do next. You were going to sit there and eat your meal whenever it happened to arrive. And, with food like that, that was always enough. Especially when you could always ask for “a little more piadina please”.

All of that is a very long way of saying that after years and years, I finally got around to making piadina at home. Traditionally, piadina is made with lard, and as you know, I just happen to have a whole lot of lard right now. I’m sure you could substitute vegetable shortening, but I think you’d miss out on some of the flavor and tenderness of the flat bread. I’ve also seen recipes that substitute olive oil, although this would likely make a bigger change in the texture of the dough.

I ended up using a recipe from Food & Wine which was exceedingly simple to make. So simple, in fact, that I have been kicking myself for not making it sooner. The F&W recipe called for baking soda, although many of the recipes I’ve seen don’t add any type of levening. Next time around, I plan on either leaving it out, substituting baking powder or just using less, because I thought that the flatbread had a tiny bit of a bitter after-taste from the soda.

Regardless, the dough, after sitting, takes on this wonderfully smooth texture that is soft and easy to roll out to a nice thin round. Piadina should really be cooked on something like a pizza stone, but I don’t have one. A stove top griddle, however, works too, although getting the temperature right can be a little tricky. Near the end, my griddle was a little too hot in spots and I quickly scorched a few breads. Luckily, I still had plenty already cooked up for a nice lunch and nibble throughout the day.

As we started moving in to our new house, I realized I wasn’t really sure how to “count” when I had officially broken in my new kitchen. Simply slicing up tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers and throwing in some feta for a quick and easy greek salad really didn’t feel enough like “cooking.” It seems that if you don’t actually heat up the range, it is really just foreplay. My first time heating the stove, however, only produced a nice cup of tea. Still, my kitchen remained virginal. Even when we got around to finally cooking real food, it wasn’t in the kitchen… it was back on the deck in the barbecue. My kitchen still had to wait.

In part, the delay was just due to ridding the house of as many boxes as possible so we could actually move. At the end of each day last week, all we could do was collapse on the couch. Moving, even a short distance, is simply hard work. The cooking was not going to happen.

Of course, the other part… perhaps the bigger part… was that I had to decide exactly what to cook. This is a momentous decision. It’s the first creation in the new home, the first thing I was going to shoot, the first thing I was going to post about. The possibilities were staggering. Luckily, the field narrowed quickly when not one but two of my new-old neighbors, came knocking on the door with bagfuls of Italian Prune plums (or at least something that looks a lot like them). I was going to be baking with plums, and doing it rather quickly and in large quantities.
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I guess it’s not so much where I’ve gone, as where I’m going to. After months and months of trying to come up with the right remodel plan for our house to give me more space to shoot, a house just 5 houses down from us was going up for sale. We jumped on it before it hit the market, and have been in a whirlwind of real estate transactions ever since. We are so excited for the new space… much bigger kitchen and a whole room dedicated to be my studio… all without leaving our neighbors who we couldn’t imagine leaving. It really couldn’t be better.

With one tiny problem. I have been queen of bargain prop shopping over the last year or so. Today, I’ve already packed 8 large boxes with my props, and I don’t think I’m even half way done yet. None of the boxes are liftable anymore (at least not by me). The only thing keeping me going is the beer and ice cream that are clear requirements of any large moving job. That and the fact that I HAVE to be done with the kitchen by tomorrow night, as the floor-sander-dude is coming to the house this week to redo the floors.

If I end up with an hour or two free at some point this week, I have some great posts that just need to get written up! Otherwise, see you in the new house!

PS: Our existing house will be on the market in early September. It’s got great light for anyone just getting started in food photography!!! Tell your friends! Plus, trust me, I can’t think of a nicer block to live on in Seattle if you like to hang with your neighbors.

OK. I had this really cool recipe planned to post today, but alas, it will have to wait, due to a little trip I just made to the emergency room, and a bigger trip I have planned to Boston.

On the small trip, all I’ll say is that there is a VERY GOOD REASON for that little plastic handle thingy that they provide with your mandolin. Use it, or, you will almost certainly regret it. How many times can the doctors and nurses joke about my career as a hand model being over? More than I’d like to mention. The good news is that I should be back cooking soon enough, but the typing is a bit slow.

On the big trip, I’m headed out to Boston to catch up with the lovely Bea, as well as attend the Food Styling and Photography conference at BU. It should be a fantastic few days, and of course, you’ll hear all about it over on Still Life With… once it’s over.