Julie and Julia inspired bruschetta.

Before I went to see Julie and Julia I prepared. I knew I was going to come away from the movie craving good food. So I marinated a flank steak and bought all of the ingredients for rosemary garlic roasted potatoes and green beans with caramelized shallots and sliced almonds to accompany the tender steak. However, what I did not prepare was an appetizer.

If you asked what struck me about the movie I will go on about Meryl Streep's delightful portrayal of Julia Child. And how I connect to this movie because my Mom used to watch Julia Child all the time. She had all of her shows on tape and she would watch them over and over again on her kitchen television while making dinner. I have the infamous Mastering the Art of French Cooking and to this day I find it ridiculously intimidating because it seems like my mom made all of her complex and interesting dishes straight from Julia's book.

Now, if you ask me what struck me about the food in the movie I will go on ad nauseaum about how I want to de-bone a duck and stuff it with meat and cover it with pastry and then cook it. I really want to give this one a try (though honestly I worry about my ability to de-bone a duck and I have informed my friends that I will require a support staff to help me when I finally decide to make this ridiculously awesome dish).

The other food that caught my eye for immediate re-creation was the bruschetta. We talked about the bruschetta all the way home. And how good it looked. So when my foodie friends and I got home we took one look at the enormous bounty of yellow tomatoes in my garden and decided that we should go ahead and make some ourselves. So, one trip to the grocery store later and we were in my kitchen. One person toasting the bread in a skillet while the others chopped tomatoes, basil, onions, garlic and fresh mozzarella and tossing them with olive oil balsamic vinegar salt and pepper.

This is a fantastic appetizer and while the toasting the bread in the pan is a little more complicated than my normal method of shoving it in the toaster oven with some butter on it, the pan toasting with olive oil is MUCH better than the other version. I may never be able to make easy bruschetta again.

Colorful Summer Bruschetta
8 yellow pear tomatoes diced
2 medium red herloom tomatoes diced
10 basil leaves sliced very thinly in a chiffonade
4T Balsamic vinegar
4T Extra Virgin Olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 cup very small balls of fresh mozz
1 clove garlic minced very tiny


9 slices of nice bread (sourdough, rustic, baguette, something crusty)
4T Extra virgin olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a skillet and toast the pieces of bread. Set aside

Place all of the ingredients for the tomato topping in a large bowl and mix them together until everything seems sufficiently coated in vinegar.
Spoon the topping over the toast and serve immediately (the toast will get soggy if it sits too long).

BON APPETIT!

Crack Scones

I started working out again for the first time today and what better way to celebrate than with scones and shrimp scampi. Weight loss, what weight loss. The other day I tried this scone recipe and my husband liked them so much that he now calls them crack. And the best part is how easy and fast they are.

I modeled them after the scones at a little Irish Bakery in Melrose, Ma called Breads and Bits of Ireland. If you live in the area and you haven't been, go tomorrow, or better yet early on a Saturday or Sunday morning. They make the best scones and they have a huge variety including chocolate orange, raspberry jam, and lemon poppy seed just to name a few. They also have Irish Soda bread and they do breakfast and lunch there. But I only ever went for the delicious scones. Which last for several days. You can even stick them in the toaster oven when they start to go stale and enjoy them like they are freshBut these are just a few varieties I highly recommend you go and try their greatness for yourself.

But I digress, I made cream scones with Chocolate Chips and Clementine zest. And anyone who tells you that good scones have to have heavy cream is lying to you, I subbed in light cream and they came out just fine. I've moved too far away to get my Breads and Bits of Ireland fix but at least I can console myself with these. More on the shrimp scampi later

Crack Scones
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons sugar
The zest of one clementine
5 Tablespoons of cold butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 cup of chocolate chips
1 cup of light cream

Preheat Oven to 450 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Pour the first 4 ingredients into a food processor and pulse three times to mix them. Then place the butter evenly on top of the flour mixture and add the clementine zest. Pulse about 12 times or until the mixture sticks together when you pinch it between your fingers.
Pour the flour/butter mixture into a bowl and mix in the chocolate chips. Finally, using a rubber spatula, lightly mix in the cream. don't worry if there are extra floury bits.

Dump the dough onto a floured surface, floury bits and all, and gently work the dough until it is a ball. Not too much or it will get tough. take out a 9 inch round cake pan and flour the bottom of it. then work the dough into the cake pan until it evenly covers the bottom of the pan. Then dump the dough out onto a floured surface (you might have to give the cake pan a good whack). Cut into eight equal pieces and place them on the parchment paper. Cook for 10-16 minutes (it all depends on your oven). They might get a little dark on the bottom but don't stress this doesn't affect the flavor. You are looking for a nice golden, or a little darker, color on top.