All posts filed under: recipe

summer tomato tart with ricotta and pesto

Published by fairfaxhill

I know summer is officially over, but I didn’t want to leave this gorgeous tart behind with my never-published blog posts of 2021 and not share it with you. Bookmark it and make it next summer if you don’t have any ripe tomatoes around. Or, if by some miracle you still have some, do give this a try. The recipe is by Alexa Weibel. I stumbled upon it on the NYTimes Cooking website, the day I suddenly found myself with the most generous gift: a bag full of ultra sweet, organic, homegrown tomatoes left at our doorstep by my friend, mother-in-law, and expert tomato grower, Pat. You can put together the dish pretty quickly (which always gets points from me), and it looks beautiful on the table (perfect for when you have friends over). Serve it as a light lunch with a green salad, or make it your side dish at dinner time. When you are ready to eat the tart, make sure every bite you take has a little bit of each ingredient. The …

Zucchini dish

carpaccio di zucchini inspired by our family dinner at cucina

Published by fairfaxhill

Cucina is one of our favorite restaurants. Slowly, it has turned into our go-to place for birthday dinners, especially when they fall in the middle of the week and we don’t have enough time to cook something special. Our order typically includes pizza and pasta. Bombolotti al Sugo is a favorite, and we all like to share the Frito Misto as our starter. We rarely order dessert, since the cake and presents are typically waiting for us back at the house. A few weekends ago we were there again to celebrate Patrick’s parents’ wedding anniversary and got to try some new dishes, including Funghi Ripieni, Carpaccio di Zucchini, Insalata con Bettole, and Donna’s Amazing Almond Cake.  I liked the Carpaccio di Zucchini so much, I had to try to recreate it at home. And guess what? It turned out pretty good. So, I’m sharing my recipe with you. But before I do that, I need to highlight that the key to getting this dish right is to move quickly. And, to make the salad look as pretty as the one …

making ice cream cones is easy!

Published by fairfaxhill

When it comes to ice cream, I’m not sure what I like the most, the ice cream or the cones. Every time I go to Fairfax Scoop, our favorite ice cream shop in town, I wonder how difficult it would be to make sugar cones at home like the ones they make at their store. Would I need to have special equipment? This thought crossed my mind again last Sunday as we drove through town on our way to the supermarket. Sarah was driving, so I was able to use my phone to google a bit and found a recipe that looked pretty easy. It was almost 90 degrees outside and ice cream sounded like a good idea. We got the ingredients at the store and got started right away after we got back to the house. Making sugar cones sounded a bit intimidating, but honestly, it was super simple! All you need is a bowl and a whisk and something to prevent the cookies from sticking to the baking sheet. I used a silicone mat but …

a baking dish with bread pudding

simple bread pudding with apples and cinnamon

Published by fairfaxhill

Happy Earth Day! I’m baking again. Well, we’ve been baking since March 24. It’s hard to believe that our new stove was delivered almost a month ago, right in time for Patrick’s birthday, which was great. I was even able to bake a birthday cake, with the only problem that the delivery and installation pushed all our cooking plans late into the evening, so there were no good photos of the cake. Okay, the other problem was that my frosting didn’t turn out very pretty. So I didn’t think my first cake in our new oven was blog-worthy. It was tasty, though! Patrick had asked for a lemony dessert, so I made a four-tier mini cake filled with lots of lemon cream.  Since then, we’ve been trying to stay away from eating too many sweets in an effort to get in better shape, so it’s been a bit quiet in the baking department. We are also trying to resume our family hikes on Sundays. We started the tradition some time ago, but haven’t been very consistent. Last …