Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pudding Parfaits

I love parfaits. They are such pretty things to make, with all kinds of possibilities from what ingredients you are going to layer to what glasses you will serve them in. For these, I used our small stemless champagne flutes. I thought they made a perfect parfait, because they are just 4 ounce glasses and so the desserts were not huge, they were just right.

This parfait is made up of two creamy puddings - one chocolate, one peanut butter. It's topped off with whipped cream. You can make the puddings early in the day and refrigerate them and then assemble the parfaits later. Or you can even make the parfaits a day ahead.

Click to read more ...

Daring Bakers: Spinach Lasagna with Bolognese Sauce

The March 2009 Daring Bakers challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

There are many kinds of lasagna and even in Italy every cook has his own recipe. But this is the real, traditional lasagna that is made in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, the birthplace of fresh egg pasta. It is made with homemade fresh spinach pasta, bechamel sauce and bolognese sauce. That's it. Each of these three components can be made at separate times, so there isn't so much to do all at once. You can certainly make the bolognese sauce a day before and the bechamel can even be made in the morning and allowed to cool.

Click to read more ...

Salmon in Pomegranate Sauce

Every spring I order real wild Copper River salmon from Alaska. I get enough to last us all year and put it in my freezer. It's so much better than the farm raised salmon in the grocery store and fresher than the wild salmon they sell that's been sitting out, for who knows how long, defrosted in the fish case. Some of that stuff looks pretty sorry. I order my salmon from this place and it comes on dry ice, each fillet individually vacuum sealed so you can take out from the freezer just how many pieces you need at a time. These are absolutely gorgeous fish - so fresh and firm with bright silver skin.  I order two kinds, the cheaper Sockeye salmon and a little of the more expensive King salmon. The King salmon fillets are thicker than the Sockeye and and are a little higher in fat, which contains all those great Omega-3 fats.

Click to read more ...