A Little European Bakery

I just found a delightful little European bakery near my job. It's called Swiss Delices. They feature a variety of cookies, cakes, breads and other savory pastries. My favorite is the Bird Nest cookie, which is a hazelnut macaroon with apricot or raspberry jam in the middle. Yum. I also tried the Humentachen and Almond Toffee Bar. Both are excellent.

The woman at the Castro Valley location is really nice, and I love her French accent. There is also coffee or soup and sandwiches for lunch. If you are ever in Castro Valley or Hayward, please stop in and help keep this bakery open!

Lemon Ricotta Cookies for Easter

For my birthday I got a box of baking goodies, including little Easter-themed sugar figurines. It was perfect timing: last weekend Seth and I watched an episode of Everyday Italian on the Food Network, during which Giada was baking Lemon Ricotta Cookies. Since the cookies have a lemon glaze, I figured this would be a good opportunity to use the figures.

It's an easy recipe, and I just made two minor adjustments:

• The recipe says to spoon about 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie onto a baking sheet. On the show, Giada appeared to make smaller cookies, so I only scooped about 1/2 tablespoon.


• I also adjusted the baking time down to 12 minutes from 15 (so that the edges were slightly golden) since I scooped out smaller mounds of dough

These are light, soft cookies. I happen to love lemon, so these are right up my cookie-alley.

Here is the recipe:

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze
by Giada De Laurentiis

INGREDIENTS
Cookies
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 (15-oz.) container whole milk ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cookies
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat to combine. Stir in the dry ingredients, about 1/3 at a time.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the dough (about 2 tablespoons per cookie) onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.

Glaze
Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours.

Best Birthday Card Year Ever

Yes, it's birthday time for me. To celebrate this year we had dinner at Angeline's Kitchen in Berkeley. It was great--if you go, get the hush puppies and the jambalaya.

When we got home I opened cards and presents; they were all awesome. In particular though, this was a fantastic year of cards. Between the Twilight card the Contreraseses sent to the "Everything you want costs money," card from Seth to the "Queen for a Day" card from Kris and Steve, I don't think I've ever laughed this much from my cards. And yes, the Queen card is my favorite. How can you not love it? The crown is made of cutout paper, costume jewels, and fuzzy feathers!

A giant thanks to everyone who thought of me.

Birthday Present

This one's for my mom. Her birthday isn't until Sunday (she turns 60), but I don't think she really checks my blog, so I'm posting the picture a little early. The pattern is from Leisure Arts' Learn to Machine Quilt with Pat Sloan. I don't have a long-arm sewing machine, so I didn't machine quilt. Instead I did all the quilting by hand.

The flower and flower pot are fused onto the background fabric, and then I blanket-stitched around the edges. The quilting is all by hand, and other than quilting around the outer edges of I just stitched random patterns.

Another Book From the Teen Section of the Bookstore

Wings by Aprilynne Pike


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Entertaining enough. That is what Aprilynne Pike's Wings was for me. It kept me occupied, just enough, on the elliptical machine at the gym. However, it was missing something. I noticed it while I was reading and finally realized that the characters were not developed enough for me.

Wings starts with Laurel Sewell meeting David Lawson on her first day of public school (she was homeschooled until tenth grade). Their relationship/friendship immediately blossoms, and David is incredibly non-judgmental of Laurel--she is a vegan; she does not get cold, despite the cooling fall weather; and always wants to be outdoors. Then Laurel notices a bump on her back which quickly turns into a flower. David barely blinks at this revelation when Laurel turns to him for helps. When Laurel learns that she is a faerie from a mysterious green-eyed, green-haired faerie named Tamami, David is as calm and accepting as ever. I think he might even take it better than Laurel.

It was hard to take seriously. Everything moved along so quickly that I only had a shallow connection with the characters. I really did not fall in love with this the way I usually do, which is too bad. Pike really did put a different and interesting spin on faeries, and I liked the connection to King Arthur. Hopefully the next book will dig deeper.

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Creamy Shells with Peas and Prosciutto

I love tomato-based pasta sauces, but Seth likes cream sauces, so sporadically I try out a recipe for him. Tonight I made the America's Test Kitchen's Creamy Shells with Peas and Prosciutto. It was a winner and will be making future appearances at dinner.

The recipe says it serves four, but I think that's a bit off. It calls for a pound of small pasta shells, and between the butter and whole-milk ricotta, it's a filling dinner plus lots of leftovers. I also cut down on the amount of salt because prosciutto itself is so salty.

Creamy Shells with Peas and Prosciutto
from the America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients
1 cup whole milk ricotta
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 T unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
Salt
Pepper
4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, cut into 1/4-inch strips
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound small pasta shells
2 cups frozen peas
1 T fresh lemon juice

Directions

• Bring 4 quarts water to a boil.
  
• Combine the ricotta, Parmesan, butter, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl that's big enough for the pasta.
  
• Cook the prosciutto and olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, about five minutes; or until prosciutto is well-browned and crisp. Place prosciutto on paper-towel-lined plate. Leave the oil in the skillet.
  
• Add the onion to the skillet and cook in oil over medium heat until soft, about five minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Stir the onion/garlic mixture to the ricotta mixture.
  
• When the water is boiling, add 1 tablespoon salt and pasta. Cook al dente. Add the peas during final 30 seconds.
  
• Reserve 3/4 cup pasta cooking water. Drain shells and peas. Whisk lemon juice and 1/2 cup of the pasta water into the ricotta mixture until smooth. Add the pasta/peas and toss to coat. Salt and pepper to taste.
  
• Add the remaining pasta water as needed to loosen the sauce. Sprinkle the prosciutto over the pasta and serve.

Catching Fire

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I couldn't help myself. Yesterday I finished The Hunger Games, immediately started on Catching Fire, and read until I finished, which was very late last night/very early this morning. Now I must wait five months for the publishing of Mockingjay, which is August 24, 2010.

Catching Fire lived up to my HG-standard, and I loved it. Although, Katniss is driving me a slightly nuts when it comes to Peeta and Gale; but I know it has to happen this way. Now I'm obsessed, and I find myself hunting for fansites and even dreaming about the books.

The funny thing is that this piece of young adult fiction is really is making me think beyond the book. I find myself wondering if our country really would regress to a totalitarian state should we ever be decimated by storms, droughts, fires and rising oceans. And then I think that if Panem came true, we would rise above such a dystopian world.

Speaking of dystopia, I always knew about "utopia" but just discovered "dystopia" in my search for all-things-HG. I realize now that "dystopian society" better describes Katniss and Peeta's world than does "post apocalyptic".

Back to the books. Stop reading my thoughts on The Hunger Games Trilogy and go read the actual books so you too can anxiously wait for Mockingjay on August 24.

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