Caprese Salad

• Five slices red roma tomatoes
• Ten slices fresh bocconcini cheese
• Three leaves green basil
• Three leaves purple basil
• Red, orange, and yellow cherry tomato halves
• Arugula dressed in balsamic and olive oil vinaigrette
• Microgreens
• Balsamic reduction

Italian Meringue Buttercream

Normally when I make cakes and need to decorate them, I almost ALWAYS make buttercream icing. I like buttercream icing for it's versatility - easy to spread, pipe, and color. It is really easy to make, you can whip up as much or as little as you need, and it always turns out. It keeps well refrigerated or frozen, works well as a filling, and can be flavored as desired. I also love the taste of buttercream - fresh pure butter and sweet, soft icing sugar - need I say more?

Other frosting types I have tried include fudge, ganache, flat, royal, and whipped cream. Of course fudge frosting and ganache are awesome as well, but you cannot use chocolate frosting for everything. For this puzzle cake, I decided to try a new type of frosting - Italian meringue buttercream. Now I have made meringues before (though never Italian) and I have made buttercream before, so I had the basics down.

Italian meringue is a meringue (mixture of egg whites and sugar) that is fully cooked by beating hot sugar syrup into the whipped egg whites until the mixture cools and stiff peaks are formed. To make Italian buttercream, small pieces of softened butter is then beaten into the Italian meringue. Italian meringue is not difficult to make, but does take some time to do. First, the sugar syrup must be prepared to just the right temperature without crystallizing. Next, the whites need to be beaten to soft peaks. Then, the sugar syrup must be beaten into the whites, ensuring the hot syrup touches neither the bowl nor the beaters. It is then beaten until cool, at least ten minutes for a good batch. So this icing requires a lot of beating, and a standmixer certainly would help!

I really liked the Italian meringue, as it was glossy and smooth, but too thin to use as a frosting. Once I added the butter, it was the proper consistency but I didn't like the flavor as much. Italian buttercream is light, fluffy, white, and smooth, and has a delicate texture yet a rich flavor. It isn't great for piping but ideal for delicate cakes that cannot be spread with a heavy frosting. 

Valentine's Bruschetta

This is a little side dish I made for Valentine's Day. I just made a quick batch of bruschetta and some heart-shaped biscuits out of a yeast bread dough. I placed a heart-shaped cookie cutter on a plate and spooned in some bruschetta. Then I carefully lifted the cookie cutter up so that the bruschetta would stay in the shape of a heart. The umbrella term bruschetta actually refers to the entire dish - not just the tomato topping, which is normally served atop the bread. Actually, bruschetta can also refer to bread that has been rubbed with just a little olive oil and some spices and grilled, it doesn't necessarily have to contain tomatoes, although most North American takes on the dish do. For the sake of Valentine's Day presentation, I served the bruschetta on a plate to make it in the shape of a heart, and just served the heart-shaped bread alongside it.

The bruschtta I made was fairly basic, and I didn't really follow a recipe, I just eyeballed the amounts. I used chopped tomatoes, finely diced onion, salt, ground black pepper, granulated sugar, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and garlic powder.
Contrary to popular belief (or Americanized pronunciation), bruschetta is not pronounced with the "sh" sound but with the "sk" sound. The dish is of Italian origin, and in Italian "ch" is always pronounced "k" and therefore "sch" is pronounced as "sk".

Cheesy Polenta Bake

Polenta is an Italian dish composed primarily of cornmeal, water, and salt. It can be served warm or cold, as a thick sauce or hearty squares, and goes with many different dishes. Polenta is primarily used as a starchy side dish to soak up juices and sauces from other foods. It goes exceptionally well with red sauces, olive oil, and chicken dishes. Polenta is relatively bland on its own, which is why it is used as a "broom" to sweep up other foods. Tonight I made a polenta dish based on a recipe I came across in one of my cookbooks, but I made several changes. This recipe does not have salt, but adds cheese and uses chicken broth in place of water for flavor.

Cheesy Polenta Bake
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. hard margarine
1/2 - 2/3 cup grated mozzarella cheese
grated parmesan cheese, optional

Preheat oven to 350◦F. Spray a small casserole dish with cooking spray.
In a medium saucepan over high heat, bring the chicken broth to a boil. Gradually add the cornmeal, whisking constantly until smooth. Add pepper and continue to whisk for another minute or so until mixture boils and begins to chicken. Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer for 8 minutes, stirring every minute or so. Spread half of mixture into prepared casserole dish, dot with half the margarine and half the cheese, repeat. Sprinkle with parmesan, if desired. Bake covered for 25-30 minutes until firm and bubbly. Cut into large squares and serve.

Risotto

Tonight I made risotto for supper, which is an Italian rice dish cooked in broth to a creamy consistency. It is one of my signature dishes, and I make it quite often. My family likes to eat it relatively plain - no fancy flavours like butternut squash, wild mushroom, or seafood. I usually only flavour my risotto with olive oil, chicken broth, onion, Parmesan cheese, and freshly ground black pepper. That's all it needs. My family also likes to have our risotto as a main course with a few sides, rather than as a side dish with a main course. We just spoon up large helpings and add some vegetables and sometimes meat on the side. Everyone likes their risotto cooked to a slightly different consistency. Some like it quite soupy, others very dry. My family's preference is somewhere in between the two, leaning closer to the dry side. Risotto can be cooked quite firm, al dente, soft, or mushy. We like ours softer than al dente, but with a little chew to it.
A common misconception about risotto is that it is quite difficult, labour-intensive, and time-consuming to make. Well, this is not true. It is an easy art to master once you get the hang of it, it just requires a little practice. It does not take too long to make, 30 - 60 minutes, but it does require a close eye and quite a bit of stirring. It does not need to be stirred constantly, but quite often to prevent the rice from sticking and to allow it to absorb the liquid evenly.
Plain risotto is a convenient dish to make, because it uses only common shelf staples. One year for Christmas I gave a mushroom risotto mix as a present. It would keep for three months and, along with a carton of chicken broth, contained pretty much everything you need to make the dish. It is a wonderful gift to accompany with a good quality wooden spoon (an essential tool for making risotto), some oven mitts, and an imported extra-virgin olive oil. This is a gift sure to delight any home cook!