Happy Easter!

Easter at the Zick house is all about good food and wine! Today was no exception. I loved taking charge and providing most of the amazing dishes we had today. I spent the day in the kitchen wearing a cute apron over my sundress and of course sporting my pearls and making sure I had a glass of red wine in my hand at all times!

The first thing we dug in to was the meat pie that I made on Friday. Here's a picture of the inside of the pie:

I was surprised at how much it reminded me of the pie we usually get at the Italian bakery. Some people commented that there was a little bit too much meat and I'd have to agree. I didn't measure how much I put into the pie because I didn't want any of the meat my mom bought to go to waste (so I just added it all). Next time I'll be sure to add less meat so it doesn't overpower the rest of the cheesy, creamy filling.

My favorite side-dish that we have every Easter are dumplings. This is my great-grandmother's recipe and is a very special addition to our Easter spread.

I started out by taking 3/4's of a package of King's white bread (the really cheap white bread) and cutting off the crusts. I diced the crusts into 1/2 inch pieces. I mixed the bread crusts with 3 cups flour, 1 heaping tsp baking powder, and 2 tsp salt. I incorporated 1 egg and then started adding milk until the mixture came together. I separated the dough into 4 large dumplings:

Next, I boiled the dumplings (2 at a time) for about 20 minutes (flipping them halfway through).

I sliced them up and laid them in a large baking dish. I poured on some melted butter and baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. We served them with gravy, but they are also so buttery and delicious on their own!

I had some bread in the freezer from culinary school, so I pulled out a nice spread of brioche, bread twists, and croissants to serve with dinner:
Earlier this morning I started marinating the leg of lamb. We had a semi-boneless leg that I marinated with white wine, dijon mustard, thyme, salt, and pepper.

It roasted in the oven for about 2 hours total (starting out at 425 degrees and cooking the rest of the way at 350). I let the lamb rest while I made the gravy.

For the gravy, I used the reserved marinade, pan juices, and some dry sherry. I adjusted the seasonings a lot while I was cooking it and thickened the gravy with my emergency thickening agent: beurre manie (kneaded butter and flour).

My mom sliced the lamb and it was cooked perfectly!

Here's our dining room table with the whole Easter dinner spread. The blazing sun made for a not so nice picture..

To accompany the stars of the meal (the lamb and dumplings) we also had some roasted asparagus, roasted corn with basil, mashed turnips, plain ol' noodles with butta, and a fresh salad with raspberry vinaigrette.

After this extravagant meal, we all digested outside in the beautiful weather. Then, it was time for DESSERT.

I froze the lemon-scented cake from school and de-frosted it yesterday to make this lemon-strawberry layer cake. I split the cake and spread on a layer of vanilla flavored buttercream and sliced strawberries. I let my mom take over for the rest of the cake decorating ;) I forgot to take a picture of it before everyone dug in. It was a huge hit! The lemon was not too overpowering and the cake was very moist. Not to mention buttercream frosting is amazing.


We also had a brownie pie with hot fudge sauce (I can seriously bathe in this hot fudge sauce.. it's incredible). Okay okay, I'll give you the recipe.

Best hot fudge sauce ever:
1. In a small saucepan mix 3/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/3 cup light corn syrup, and 5 oz condensed milk. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue to boil for another minute.
2. Stir in 1/3 cup butter and 1 tsp. vanilla extract.

My mom also made some chocolate covered strawberries. These were also a hit and I didn't get a picture until there were only 3 left!

Now I'm stuffed, but happy that today was such a success. Not to mention, I got to spend time with the cutest little girl in the world:

Happy Easter!

Easter Meat Pie

Every Easter my family enjoys an Easter meat pie that we usually buy at a really good Italian bakery. These pies are filled with Italian meat and cheeses and are usually very expensive. This year I thought it would make more sense to just make it myself.

I was planning on using the recipe for Chef Chad's Pizza Rustica from his recreational Easter class. The recipe calls for the same dough as the ricotta pie that I made earlier this week. I froze the dough on Monday and took it out today to defrost for my pie.

As I went to roll out the dough it started falling apart and didn't have a great texture. I got frustrated and threw it out and decided to make a different dough. This other dough is from an old cookbook we had laying around. I think this one will be more similar to the pie we usually get from the bakery.

-2 cups all purpose flour
-1 tsp. baking powder
-3 large eggs (I used 2 jumbo--all I had)
-2 T. canola oil
-2 T. water

1. Combine the flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Form a well in the middle.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, oil and water. Gradually pour into the well. Mix to incorporate until the dough forms a ball.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 10 minutes.
4. Knead the dough until smooth and refrigerate until ready to use.

I still used Chef Chad's filling for his Pizza Rustica:
-2 cups fresh ricotta
-8 oz. fresh mozzarella
-1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
-1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
-1/2 cup parmesan
-3 large eggs (I used 2 jumbo again..)
-Assorted Italian meats, chopped (I used hot & sweet soppresata, prosciuto, salami, and capicola)

1. Combine all ingredients except for the meat.
2. Roll out half of the dough to fit a 9-inch (deep) pie dish. Press into the pie dish and poke holes in the bottom with a fork.
3. Layer in about 1/3 of the cheese mixture and spread evenly. Top with half of the chopped meats. Continue with another layer of cheese and meat, ending with the last 1/3 of the cheese.
4. Roll out the other dough and place on top. Press and crimp the edges. Brush the top with egg was and cut some slits to let out steam while baking.
5. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until golden.

Layer one of the pie:

The last layer added in:

Ready to go in the oven!

The pie turned out wonderful! I can't wait to cut into it on Easter!

Snow and Lasagna!

I actually ended up missing my first class yesterday so I will not be blogging about deep frying!  I wasn't feeling good yesterday morning and knew there were delays and cancellations on the NJ Transit so I decided to take the day off.  

This morning it was snowing out!  It was the perfect day to stay nice and warm in the kitchen and make Christmas lasagna!  My mom and I made a big pot of sauce for our traditional lasagna with mini meatballs and dried hot sausage.  We also made a separate sauce for our non-traditional lasagna with spicy poultry sausage.  We only assembled the non-traditional lasagna and put it in the freezer so that it is good for Christmas day!

So, first up: Tomato Sauce with spicy poultry sausage

1 package spicy italian poultry sausage (about 1.5 pounds)

1 onion, chopped

3 carrots, small diced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 28 oz can san marzano tomatoes, crushed

1 bouquet garni (I used 2 bay leaves, parsley stems, and thyme sprigs)

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. sugar

1/4 cup red wine or chicken stock

salt and pepper

evoo

We began by simmering the tomatoes with the bouquet garni.  In a large skillet, brown the turkey sausage on all sides.  Add to the tomato sauce.  In the same skillet, coat the pan with EVOO and add the onions and carrots.  Saute until soft and a bit caramelized.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute.  Add the mixture to the tomatoes.  Deglaze the pan with chicken stock or wine (we actually added a little of both).  Add the pan drippings to the sauce.  Season the sauce with sugar, salt, pepper, and oregano.  Simmer for about an hour.  When the sausage was done, we sliced the links and added them back to the sauce.  

When sauce #1 was done, we got started on our second sauce with dried sausage and mini meatballs.  This sauce was made in the same way as the other one except we grated the carrots, and basically doubled all of the ingredients to make a huge pot of sauce.   Instead of poultry sausage, we browned partially-dried hot italian pork sausage:

Next, we made mini meatballs.  We didn't measure anything, and just eye-balled all of the ingredients.  In a large bowl, we mixed together 2 packages of ground beef, parmesan, 2 eggs, breadcrumbs, garlic powder, chopped parsley, and a splash of milk.  

Then, we formed them into cute little meatballs and browned them in a skillet to add to the sauce.

Here's the final product of our huge pot of traditional tomato sauce:  

Next, it was time to assemble out non-traditional lasagna.  My mom and grandma are putting together the other lasagna on Tuesday.  

First, we layered a little sauce and a layer of fresh whole wheat pasta sheets (cooked just shy of al dente).  Then we spread on part-skim ricotta, chopped spinach (mixed with salt, pepper, and a hint of fresh nutmeg), fresh mozzerella, a sprinkle of pecorino, and more sauce and sausage.  We continued to layer for 2 more layers.  I CANNOT wait to try this lasagna.  We usually just make 2 traditional lasagnas, but I figured it would be nice to change it up and make 1 lasagna a little different :)

Thanksgiving!

What am I thankful for? (besides my wonderful family and being given the chance to pursue my dream)   I am thankful for Anne Burrell.  Thanks to her, we had a BEAUTIFUL turkey (above) and the most delicious stuffing and gravy I have ever had.  For those of you who don't know her, she is the host of "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" on FN.. She also used to be a chef instructor at ICE.  My mom and I watched her Thanksgiving episode and decided to try out her recipes this Thanksgiving, including basting a turkey for the first time.  Boy was it worth it!  

Here's a pic of the stuffing, which was made with ciabatta bread, spicy italian sausage, apples, onion, celery, apple cider, stock, and lots of herbs:

Instead of the usual mashed potatoes, we tried a Paula Dean recipe (which is out of the ordinary because Paula really gets on my nerves and usually uses way too much butter in her recipes!)  but these mashed potatoes were fantastic!  It was a mixture of potatoes (we used yukon gold), parsnips, and rutabega mashed with cream cheese and butter.  We used an immersion blender to get it nice and creamy..mmm

Usually for our veggies, we just make plain corn and string beans.  Not this year!  My sister was in charge of the corn and spiced it up a bit by saute-ing it in olive oil and adding fresh basil and other seasonings.  We also made a maple roasted vegetable dish that I ripped out of some magazine (I think it was Gourmet mag?).  It had carrots, parsnips, butternut squash, cauliflour, and brussel sprouts.  We mixed it up with some of wegman's basting oil, salt, pepper, fresh nutmeg, a drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkle of minced fresh ginger.  We also topped it off with some toasted pecans:

Other dishes included sweet potatoes, which my mom made and were soo good (they were baked with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon) and my mom's usual stuffing that we stuffed inside the bird.. As much as I loved the stuffing I made, I must say that hers was pretty awesome too... When we were cleaning up, she was literally spoon feeding me some more stuffing that was stuck inside the bird... mmmmm LOVE stuffing!

For the first cocktail of the day (before all the amazing wine was opened) we had some champagne that I topped off with pomegranite seeds:

Here's a pic of our beautiful Thanksgiving table:

We ate dinner around 4.  After cleaning up the massive mess in the kitchen, my mom and I finally got to enjoy some cask wine and relax!  Then my mom and I kicked some butt  playing "guesstures" against Uncle Mike, Kim, and my Grandparents.  We had some great laughs over our great charade skills!  In the meantime, my brother helped himself to another huge plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, and noodles (all he needs is an hour to rest before he can continue eating), and my sister and dad went into a turkey/wine coma in the family room.

Finally it was time for dessert and the Giants game!  First dessert: the beautiful, magazine-worthy apple pie:

And the sad, definitely non-magazine worthy pumpkin pie:

I messed up, but it still tasted good ..I swear ;)  

I didn't take a picture of the pudding pie, but I definitely should have because my mom made it really pretty by piping on fresh whipped cream and topping it with shaved chocolate. 

Now I am tired, full, and must sleep!  Hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving prep weekend!

Today my mom and I did a little bit of baking, cooking, and planning for Thanksgiving.  We planned out our menu and I'm very excited for the new additions to our Thanksgiving table this year.  For our turkey, we're using Anne Burrell's recipe:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/brined-herb-crusted-turkey-with-apple-cider-gravy-recipe/index.html    for the brine (which we'll prepare on Monday), the herb crust, and the gravy.  We are also making Anne Burrell's stuffing, along with my mom's usual stuffing recipe that we're stuffing inside the bird.  Also on the menu is mashed potatoes with parsnips and rutabega, sweet potatoes, roasted vegetables, corn, and noodles.. yuum.  We have our shopping list all set for tomorrow!

I made a delicious lunch for my mom and I before we started baking.  I wanted to practice scrambling eggs like I did in class on Tuesday, so I made scrambled eggs over asparagus.  I cut the stems off the asparagus and seasoned them with Wegman's basting oil, salt, and pepper.  I roasted them in a 400 degree oven until tender and crispy.

I made scrambled eggs for my dad too and gave him some potatoes (so I could practice medium dicing, par boiling, and sauteeing!) with chicken sausages:

 Then it was on to baking!  First we made cranberry bread.  My mom got this recipe years ago from her librarian and it's a huge hit when she makes it every fall!  Here's the recipe: (We doubled it to make 2 loaves)

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup butter

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp. orange peel

3/4 cup orange juice

1 1/2 cups golden raisons

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl.  Cut the butter into the mixture until crumbly.  Add the egg, orange peel, and orange juice.  Stir until the mixture is moist.  Fold in the raisons, cranberries, and walnuts.  Spoon into a greased loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour 10 minutes.  

I love having a slice of this bread for breakfast with cream cheese spread on top!

Next, we baked my mom's famous chocolate chip cookies!  This is a secret recipe, so I can't post it!  But here's a picture: