Cranberry Upside Down Cake for the Holidays

Well, the holidays are fast approaching - do you have your menus figured out yet? I have two boys coming home from college in the next week, both of whom have birthdays, and we give a big Christmas Eve party every year. It's a lot of food planning.  I've had cookbook reviews to do, I've been writing Christmas cards, baking a lot and buying and wrapping gifts.  But I did manage to finish this purple scarf I've been knitting for quite some time.  It's made out of Malabrigo (indigo 88) and it's super soft and very fun to wear.   Just had to show that in case we have any knitters out there.

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Baked Whole Fish in a Salt Crust and a Review of "Seafood alla Siciliana"

In the beginning of the new cookbook, Seafood alla Siciliana, author Toni Lydecker quotes Goethe:  "To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything".   And you'll certainly feel this way after reading this beautiful book.  When the publisher contacted me and sent me a copy, I couldn't wait to read it - after all, this is where my mother was from.  This is not just a collection of recipes but an in depth look at Sicily itself - its history, its food, its wine, its culture.  

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Daring Bakers - Cannoli

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

I almost thought there was no Daring Bakers Challenge this month.  When I checked the site to see what the November challenge was, it said "Sorry all, we're not baking this month".  But that is because the challenge is cannoli.  Cannoli is an Italian dessert that is made of fried dough, formed into tubes, and filled with sweetened ricotta cheese.  So no, we are not baking, but we're still making a great dessert.

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