Finally, I have energized my camera and got into the kitchen to cook up a small feast. First course was a penne pasta dish with eggplant, garlic, mushroom, tomato, chicken, tomato sauce, olive oil, oregano and thyme. I was excited to be able to cook something with eggplant (or aubergine) because I don't think I've had it since I was in Chinatown San Francisco. Normally it is so expensive, so I was lucky enough to find a lovely round eggplant at the vegie store by my gym. The whole dish turned out deliciously scrumptious. And the smell, oh it smelled delightful. Such a beautiful fragrance of tomato and herbs. It's especially great for something we invented without a recipe.
For dessert, Ma and I baked a rhubarb and apple pie. We made the sweet, buttery pastry ourselves because we discovered we didn't have enough fresh ready made pastry in the freezer. It actually worked out quite nicely because it gave me a chance to learn how to make it. I love pastry. I always eat pieces of it raw. Yummy. We added some cinnamon and nutmeg to the fruit to give it a bit of a kick. The pie turned out great.
We served it with some fresh cream. There was actually more apple in the pie than rhubarb (next time we'll have to buy 2 packs) but you could still taste the rhubarb. It gave it a nice, slightly sour taste. I loved the pastry on edge of buy. It was crisp and tasted like shortbread. Dad had two slices, he liked it so much. My only lament is that I wish I had eaten it a la mode. It would have been better with icecream rather than cream.
 This last shot is supposed to showcase the apple rhubarb innards but it turned out a little blurry.Labels: baking, dessert, home-cooking, Italian, pasta |
