Italian Cheesecake

Easy and Delicious Ricotta Cheesecake --

and it's Gluten Free!

Ok, so this is not a cheesecake -- it is a mouthwatering rainbow cake that I bought from Betty Bakery in Brooklyn for our Labor Day weekend party.  I wanted everyone to see it! It's a sensible choice if you have lots of kids around; or better yet, a perfect gift for contemptuous, county clerks in Kentucky...sorry, had to throw that in.

Here is the cheesecake that we are going to make. I am eating this slice at my desk presently, as I write up the recipe! YUM!!!

So, if you are in the mood for extra rich, thick cream cheese cheesecake, the one with the graham cracker crust and perhaps some heavy whipped or sour cream on top, this recipe is not for you.  The recipe that follows is a traditional, Italian-style cake that is light, has just the right amount of sweetness and has the consistency that is more like flan than cream cheese. It is delicious, and better yet, simple to prepare. It is also perfect for dinner parties, is an impressive gift, and can be prepared a day in advance. You won't regret it!

Here is what you will need:

Spring form baking pan

3 lbs of whole milk ricotta cheese. Note: Be sure to look closely at the container's label, measurements can be obscure (above, a 15 oz container? Honestly!)

2 cups granulated sugar

6 eggs

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 tablespoon vanilla paste: 

In my opinion, unless you are cutting fresh vanilla beans and removing the seeds,  Nielsen-Massey vanilla bean paste should be used wherever vanilla extract is required.  It is simply the best! I use a generous amount for this cake.

You can find it at:

Sur La Table

Here is how to prepare the cake

Start by preheating oven to 350 degrees. 

Lightly whisk the eggs and then add in the ricotta cheese and sugar.  

Add in the vanilla paste...

...and the lemon zest. 

Mix the ingredients together lightly. Be sure not to over mix, it should remain a bit lumpy. 

If you are looking for a new spring form baking pan, check out the German brand, Kaiser.  It is available at Sur La Table. 

This ingenious one (above) has a glass bottom, perfect to help gauge whether baking is complete!

Pour batter into the spring form pan and bake in the oven for one and a half hours, or until the top turns brown. After taking it out of the oven, it will fall a little bit. Release the spring 30 minutes after it starts cooling. The longer the cake cools, the better it will taste. It can be enjoyed at room temperature or cooled overnight. 

Top the cake with some powdered sugar and serve plain or with some fresh fruit.

Wasn't that easy??

Sur La Table is having a big sale! Check it out:

http://www.surlatable.com/

Slow Cooked Comfort Foods

Perfect Pot Roast (now more commonly called Braised Beef)

While growing up in the picturesque Adirondack region of upstate New York, complete with rolling hills, apple orchards and ski resorts, my parents would prudently take advantage of the many local farms and purchase half a steer every year-- literally all the pieces of half a cow would be delivered to our house!  I vividly remember when it would arrive --  my mother would spend a long afternoon sealing and labeling each cut before placing in our enormous deep freezer.  Luckily for us, and to the amazement of our friends when they joined us for dinner, my sisters and I grew up eating steak whenever we pleased.

While the memory of eating copious amounts of steak is now hazy, I fondly remember devouring other cuts, specifically -- the chuck roast, which  my mother would succulently prepare into her most famous winter comfort meal -- slow cooked pot roast. She cooked it to perfection, it crumbled off the knife and melted in the mouth.  Some years ago, long after my parents moved to Florida and my mother stopped preparing these heavier meat dishes, I asked her for the recipe. Her reply:

"Oh, I don't remember, dear!"

Huh??

So I was on my own!  After numerous attempts to resurrect my mother's pot roast, some rather unfortunate outcomes, much research, and various ingredient combinations, I finally achieved the incredible taste that I nostalgically remember from childhood.  Strangely, the trick (recalling our deep freezer) is to use frozen meat! When chuck is frozen it seems to initiate the break down of fats and proteins, creating a more tender pot roast.

If it's a chilly day, roasting meat in the oven is heavenly! And here is what you will need:

5 lb Boneless marbled Chuck Roast (preferably frozen)
2 turnips
3 parsnips
1-2 potatoes
6 celery stalks
2 onions
3 shallots
5 cloves minced garlic
1 leak
6 carrots
Fresh Rosemary
Fresh Thyme
3 Dried Bay Leaves
1 cup beef broth
1/2 cup red wine
salt/pepper
Egg Noddles
olive oil
optional -- mushrooms, tomato paste

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Cube the parsnips, turnips, celery, potato, carrots, shallots, mushrooms and leaks.  Separate cubed vegetables into two bowls (half will be cooked now, the other half later).  Dice the onions and sauté them in 3 tablespoons of olive oil. For a deeper flavor, add in a tablespoon of tomato paste (optional). After a minute combine the the first bowl of cubed vegetables with the onions. Continue to sauté for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and the wine. 

Salt both sides of the meat and place it in the center of the pot. Add in the beef broth, rosemary, thyme and bay leaves. 

As the name suggests, pot roast can stew on the stove; but I prefer to use the oven.  Cook the covered roast for 30 minutes at 350 degrees and then reduce heat to 300 degrees.  Cook for a least 4 hours. 

One hour before serving, remove the vegetables from the pot as well as enough of the liquid to prepare a gravy.  Add in the second uncooked bowl of vegetables and cook with the roast for 1 hour. 

While the vegetables are cooking, slowly wisk a tablespoon of flour with the liquid until desired gravy consistency is achieved. If it becomes too thick, add in some beef stock and/or wine.  If it's too thin, add in more flour. 

Once the vegetables are cooked to desired tenderness, remove the pot from the oven and carve away!

On this occasion, I served the pot roast with gravy egg noddles (mashed potatoes work well too!), pureed acorn squash seasoned with cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg, and the delicious cubed vegetables that were cooked in the meat juices.  Adding a side of cheddar cheese popovers is always a hit, too!

Bon Appetite!

If you are lucky enough to have leftovers --

1.  Use it for beef barley soup.  

2.  Or, make hot, open-faced meat sandwiches. Fork the meat apart, cook it in gravy, and serve over fresh toast.  The kid's will love it!

Quick Kale and Bean soup

Autumnal Preparations

Soup, Stock and Storage

In my family, as soon as we start to feel the September nip in the air we know the “carefree” days of summer have passed and the inner squirrel is soon to arrive. All those delicious fresh veggies are not going to be at farmer’s market much longer.  It's time to look forward to the fall harvest: kale, collards, cabbage (ahh -- and my famous cabbage Ribbolita  -- recipe soon to follow). Luckily, these autumn leafy favorites are high in antioxidants (cancer fighters) and have other significant health benefits, such as lowering cholesterol (see below).

Mid-way between light summer fare and hearty winter stomach fillers are some amazing autumnal dishes.  Further down is a delicious, and VERY simple bean and kale soup that everyone who tries seems to request the recipe. 

But, before we get to the soup, it is worthwhile discussing stocks. While there are some delicious store bought stocks (check out Rachel Ray's Chicken Stock), it is best to make your own, provided  you have the time.  

The stocks I most commonly make are:

chicken
turkey
vegetable

They all start with the same base. Some call it the ”cooking trinity” - onions, celery and carrots. 

After chopping (they don't need to be diced) these veggies go into your largest pot heated with olive oil.  Once softened, simply add in other chopped vegetables and common ingredients in the refrigerator: parsnips, turnips, garlic, parsley, dill, salt and pepper.  You will enjoy how beautifully they mesh together in the pot. 

Avoid using tomatoes, broccoli or other ingredients which will overpower the subtleness of the stock. These can be added into the soups or bases of the dish that you make with the stock, but not here.

I wish I could send over the smell -- it is culinary heaven. 

Once all the vegetables are soft, I add chicken bones (rotisserie leftovers) or a whole chicken. As Thanksgiving nears, I will ask the butcher for turkey necks,  as they give the stock a heartier, complex, less common taste. It will be used for gravies and for basting. 

I add water till it hits the top of the pot and let the stock simmer for a couple hours.  Once meat is fully cooked, I strain everything out  and let the stock cool over night in the refrigerator (or if its cold enough, outside!).  In the morning, I strain the fat and freeze the stock in separate containers.  But first, before freezing let's use some of it: 

Kale and Bean Soup -- in only 15 minutes!!

Ingredients:

3-4 stalks of Kale
Medium Onion
1 Shallot
1 can of White Beans (or Cannellini or Navy)
2-3 cloves garlic
Stalk of Rosemary
1 1/2 cups Chicken Stock (preferably home made)
Hot Pepper
Freshly grated Parmasan
Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper.  

Chop kale, mince garlic and dice onion and shallot.

Heat olive oil in large sauté or soup pan.  Saute onion, shallot, garlic and whole stalk of rosemary for about 5 minutes.

Add kale and hot pepper and sauté until tender (2-3 min)

Add chicken stock and let simmer for 5 minutes on low heat

Add drained and rinsed beans and let simmer for 10-12 minutes on low heat.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Discard rosemary sprig

Add parmesan before serving

Simple and delicious!

Double recipe if serving more than 2-3 people. 

Why Kale?

Simply put, kale is one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet.  It grows well organically, contains beta-carotene, lutein, calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, and other minerals. It has high concentrations of Vitamin A, Vitamin C and most importantly Vitamin K -- a crucial antioxidant which helps reduce risks of most forms of cancer.  Vitamin K is also abundant in parsley, spinach and collard greens. Aside from its antioxidant properties, Vitamin K is important for normal blood clotting and bone health, and is used in treatment for people with Alzheimers.   

Oh, by the way, cooked kale also helps to reduce cholesterol! 

It's kind of amazing...

...need I say more??

Just eat your Kale, Dagnamit!

See:

www.nutrition-and-you.com/kale.html

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/beans-protein-rich-superfoods

Hairstyles for children

Little girls are magical!  And fortunately for us style-happy types, having daughters who love their dresses, jewelry and long hair is a blessing!

Admittedly, when it came to hair, I had a huge learning curve. Prior to having our daughter, I had not helped anyone with their coif.  Well, that has certainly changed!  Multiple times a day, I now brush, primp, wash, condition and sometimes even curl my daughters hair.  Thankfully, she is a good sport and enjoys getting all dolled up.  Here are some of the fun looks we have done together...

The Beach Bun

The Flower Girl

Primping!

The Frozen Sisters Hairstyle (on this day it is Elsa)

The Shirley Temple

The practical French braid

The hair feature

Ah, and THE BUN!  It took years to get this one down -- years of curious looks from the ballet moms!

For those of you still learning, here is a simple hair style that will surely impress...

Brush back hair into pony tail

Put in elastic tie, and then pull it down on the tail a bit

Spread hair evenly above the elastic

Twist bottom of pony tail into the hole created above

Slide hair through

Tighten elastic tie and, Voila!

If you need new hair ties for school, I recommend these autumn colored ties from Sephora:

http://www.sephora.com/in-nude-hair-ties-P393119?skuId=1652577

Change

From my desk to yours...

7 years ago my life changed. Correction, our life changed. We had no idea just how much it was going to change as we drove our uber-green hybrid SUV down the Jersey Turnpike toward a nebulous Washington DC-area maternity ward on that crisp, April morning in 2007.  I had abruptly left a high-pressure retail advertising position, and my partner, Steve, sitting next to me nervously chatting about some esoteric geomagnetic space storm,  was worrying about his patients that were cancelled suddenly.  The comfortable life that we knew had changed.  Changed for good...

What hasn't changed is my relationship with Steve. I met him in my early 30s on a Master's swim team in Manhattan, and almost immediately into our courtship, among other things, he talked of wanting kids.  Kids? Up to that point I had not given it much thought.  Are parents even allowed in at Club G? Parenting was not part of gay culture...yet. To a certain extent, I didn't know what he was talking about and assumed he was simply chattering.

Steve and I spent many wonderful years building our professional lives, enjoying theater almost every week, exercising at chic Equinox sports clubs, eating at the best restaurants in the city, and summering in the Hamptons.  And every 4 months we would take an amazing vacation -- Argentina, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, Italy, and Italy, and Italy! As we touched down at JFK from some exotic world destination and before passing through customs, we had the details of our next trip ironed out. What could be better?

7 years later, our jet set life seems like a lifetime ago.  We have a townhouse in one of the best school districts in New York City, have mostly straight friends with whom we share a common parenting bond, are the class parents,  and are in bed before 10:00 most nights.  And we have a gorgeous and intelligent 7 year old daughter.  That is what is better! And that is how our life changed, ever-so wonderfully!

Despite being busy keeping my family organized, fed and to school on time, I am entering the blogging world, encouraged to do so by numerous friends who feel that I should share some observations of my life as a stay-at-home dad.  I hope that it is enjoyable, insightful and if I am lucky, at times, humorous.  But for now, I need to pick up my daughter from school, find the next installment of the Thea Stilton book series, get dinner on the stove and finish that 3rd load of laundry...