Blueberry Walkaway

Many years ago when I was a newlywed living in Chapel Hill, there was a bakery downtown that served pastries called Walkaways.  They cut off a slice and gave it to you in a napkin and . . . you walked away with it.   Anyway, we still call them that to this day.  They're fruit stuffed pastries with cream cheese that are heavenly.

I would make them myself back then with (cringe) Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough, canned pie filling and some slices of cream cheese.  That works, but this version is so much better.  I actually use the dough for my Cinnamon Bread for these now. That dough recipe makes two loaves of bread - it also make two walkaways (or one loaf of cinnamon bread and one walkaway!). This recipe is halved to make one walkaway. 

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Grilled Marinated Steak with Salsa Verde Sauce

Are you still buying steaks and just throwing them on the grill?  Well, it's time to take your steaks to the next level and marinate them.  You won't believe the difference.   I get asked a lot what I marinate my steaks in and I'm going to share it with you.

I'm also going to introduce you to a sauce that's used in Italian cooking called salsa verde.  It's not like the spicy Mexican version, but is an herb based sharp sauce that is the traditional accompaniment for bollito misto - the Piedmontese dish of boiled meats. I like it very much over grilled steak.  It is a raw sauce made with fresh parsley and is simple to whirl up in your food processor.  When we had dinner at Perbacco in San Francisco, they brought out breadsticks with salsa verde for dipping and their version was out of this world. 

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From Capri - Lemon Cake

Continuing on with my recipes inspired from our trip to Italy is this lemon cake. While we were on Capri, I had breakfast one morning that was just a simple piece of lemon cake, a fresh orange and a cappuccino.  It was just such a perfect breakfast in a place where there were either lemon groves or orange trees everywhere you looked. I bought a nice little ceramic lemon juicer on the island and knew right then and there that I would make a lemon cake for the blog when I got back. 

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