The potatoes were cut into 1-inch chunks and added to the pot along with the stock. The mixture is seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked until the potatoes are tender, yet not breaking apart. Two cups of the potatoes and a cup of stock are removed to either a food processor or blender and pulse until the potatoes are liquified. The puree is poured back into the pot along with the leek and seasonings adjusted. To serve, pour into bowls and garnish with crumbled bacon and grated cheese.
 
I wanted to love this soup, but both my husband and I said it needed something. When I make it again, I would use russet potatoes that have been baked, cooled and riced. Secondly, there was too much liquid for the number of potatoes. I would have preferred all of the potatoes puréed giving the soup a creamy texture.  Before we had it a second time, I puréed all the potatoes and the texture was better. I think this soup deserves a second chance.
 
I was listening to a podcast with Arthur Schwartz, former food columnist for The Daily News newspaper and a former radio talk show host for “Food Talk,” on WOR radio. He was talking about Pasta alla Norcina. This absolutely delicious pasta dish starts by removing sausage from its casing and adding garlic, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, a pinch of nutmeg and white wine and letting it sit for an hour. The pasta sauce is made using the sausage mixture, extra-virgin olive oil, an onion, dry white wine, heavy cream, freshly ground black pepper, kosher salt, tubular pasta (penne or rigatoni), Pecorino Romano cheese and freshly grated nutmeg.
 
To prepare, the recipe calls for making sausage patties and cooking until brown then breaking the patties up. I thought this was a bit ridiculous, so I just cooked the ground sausage in the pan, breaking up the large pieces, then adding onions and cooking until softened. Once the onions are done, wine is added to the pan and reduced followed by heavy cream. The sauce is seasoned with salt and pepper.
 
Meanwhile,  prepare the pasta. When done, save some of the cooking liquid and drain the pasta. The sauce and cooked pasta are combined and cooked until the sauce is thickened, additional pasta water may be needed to attain a creamy sauce. Off heat, the Pecorino Romano cheese and added. The dish can be garnished with freshly ground black pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.
 
As it was my granddaughter’s birthday dinner, she requested Pasta alla Norma. I found a recipe on the website “Serious Eats” by J. Kenji López-Alt. For this recipe you’ll need extra-virgin olive oil, small Italian or Japanese eggplants, kosher salt, garlic cloves, dried oregano, red pepper flakes, tomato paste, whole peeled tomatoes, either penne rigate or rigatoni pasta, fresh basil land ricotta salata.
 
The recipe starts by cooking half-moon cuts of eggplant in olive oil until browned on both sides. It’s removed from the pan and more oil is added so that the garlic, oregano, and pepper flakes cook until the garlic is golden brown. Next, make a hot spot, add the tomato paste and briefly cook. Now add the whole tomatoes and their juice and cook until reduced and sauce-like. Meantime, cook the pasta reserving a cup of cooking water. Drain pasta and add sauce and cook until creamy. To serve, garnish with ricotta salata, fresh basil leaves and extra EVOO if desired.
 
Both of these pasta dishes came out delicious. My husband, daughter and I loved the Pasta alla Norcina. My son-in-law, along with his daughters, preferred the Pasta alla Norma. A split decision, but for my husband and I, any pasta  dish is welcomed.
 
During my daughter’s family’s last days at the beach, she invited another family to join them. My daughter was going to get pizza from Pizzeria Lucci in Belmar, therefore, I only needed to prepare a salad and my granddaughter’s request for cupcakes. I found a recipe, by Yossy Arefi, on The New York Times/NYT Cooking website for Vanilla Cupcakes. This recipe yields a mere dozen, which was perfect. For the recipe you’ll need, all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, fine salt, unsalted butter, buttermilk, eggs, neutral oil and vanilla extract. The buttercream frosting needs either lemon juice, lemon extract or vanilla extract for flavoring and heavy cream or milk. Since my granddaughter requested strawberry frosting, I pulsed dried strawberries in my mini food processor which I added to the frosting.
 
The recipe made cupcakes that were moist, tender and not too sweet. I can’t recall the number of dried strawberries I grounded to a powder, but it was the perfect amount. The frosting had a lovely strawberry flavor that wasn’t overpowering. We decorated some with multi-colored sprinkles and red sanding sugar.
 
I also made sugar cookies for eating and for my granddaughter’s young friends to take home. Last summer, my daughter found some summer themed cookie cutters on sale at Williams-Sonoma, so I decided to bake a small batch of cookies using them.
 
Last September, I took a cookie decorating class with Dani Boglivi-Fiori, at her studio/cookie kitchen, Sweet Dani B Cookie Kitchen & Petite Party Studio in Asbury Park, NJ. I followed her recipe both for the sugar cookies and royal icing. As I wasn’t sure how many cookies the recipe would yield (not mentioned in the recipe), I decided to prepare half. The icing is made with meringue powder, cold water and confectioner’s sugar which yields 5 cups that can frost approximately 24-30 cookies (depending on size and detail). Again, I wasn’t sure how much I would need, so I pared it down to a bare minimum using 1/8 cup meringue, 1/4 cup cold water and eight ounces of confectioner’s sugar. In hindsight, I should have prepared more.
 
The cookies came out perfectly. I did a hack to get a uniformed thickness. I used two paint stirrers (1/4” thick) and rolled out the dough between them; it worked like a charm. I’ve made Sweet Dani’s royal icing before, however, instead of small plastic bottles that we used in her cookie class, I tried pastry bags, not good. Also, my icing needed to be more fluid to have better flow from the bag to the cookie and for filling in between the lines. I’ll save you from viewing my poor results; I made need her class on preparing the frosting. Nevertheless, the kids loved them and they were a great parting gift .
 
Well, that’s it for this post, there’s more to come such as Mini Chocolate Chip-Ins, White Wine Lobster Ravioli Sauce, Sheet-Pan Miso Chicken with Radishes and Lime and Wild Mushroom and Thyme Frittata. 

​Potato Bar Soup
“5 Ingredient Fix,” by Claire Robinson
Published by Grand Central Life & Style
Hachette Book Group, NY ©2010
 
Yield: 6 servings
 
Ingredients
4 strips smoky bacon
3 large leeks, woody green ends removed, sliced and rinsed
1-1/2 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
6 cups low-sodium chicken stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Grated cheddar cheese, for serving
 
Directions
Put the bacon strips in a large Dutch oven or heavy soup pot and cook over  medium heat until crisp, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain; reserve. Add the leeks to the bacon drippings and cook, stirring until softened and light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the cooked leeks and set aside.
 
Add the potatoes and chicken stock to the pot. Add salt and a healthy grind of black pepper and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cover, reduce the heat to medium low, and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, but still holding their shape, 12 to 15 minutes. With the slotted spoon, remove about 2 cups of the potatoes and transfer them to a food processor or blender; add about 1 cup chicken stock and pulse until the potatoes are broken down. Do not overmix, add more liquid if necessary to get them moving in the machine, but stop when they are liquefied. Pour the potato puree back into the pot and stir in the browned leeks. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
 
To serve, ladle the hot soup into warm bowls, crumble some bacon over the top along with grated cheese. 

Pasta all Norcina (Creamy Pasta with Sausage)
By Sasha Marx from the website “Serious Eats)
 
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 25 minutes
Active: 30 minutes
Total: 90 minutes
Servings: 4
 
Ingredients
Sausage mixture
12 ounces (340 g) coarsely ground pork, chilled (see note)
1 large garlic clove (8 g), minced
1 1/2 teaspoons (6 g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for table salt use half as much by volume or the same weight
3/4 teaspoon (2 g) freshly ground black pepper
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons (30 ml) dry white wine, chilled
 
For the Pasta
1 recipe sausage mixture (from above) or 12 ounces (340 g) fresh pork sausage (4 links), removed from casing (see note)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion (about 3 1/2 ounces; 100 g) finely chopped
1/2 cup (120 ml) dry white wine
1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 ounces (340 g) dried, short, tubular pasta such as penne or rigatoni or long fresh egg-dough pasta such as tagliatelle or fettuccine
1 1/2 ounces (45 g) finely grated Pecorino Romano, plus extra for serving
Freshly grated nutmeg, for serving
Freshly shaved or grated black truffle, for serving (optional; see note)
 
Directions
For the Sausage Mix: In a medium bowl, combine pork, garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and stir with a wooden spoon to evenly distribute seasoning. Add 2 tablespoons (30ml) chilled wine and stir vigorously, working meat mixture against bottom and sides of bowl, until wine is incorporated and mixture becomes tacky and sticky, 1 to 2 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
Alternatively, combine pork, garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until seasonings are evenly incorporated, about 1 minute. Add wine, increase speed to medium, and mix until wine is incorporated and mixture becomes tacky and sticky, 1 to 2 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
 
 
 
For the Pasta: 

1. When ready to cook, remove sausage mixture from refrigerator and, using clean hands, form into four 1/2-inch-thick patties (don't worry about making them perfectly round as they will get broken up into smaller pieces; if using store-bought sausage, form uncased sausages into 1/2-inch-thick patties). In a large skillet or straight-sided sauté pan, heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add sausage patties and cook until bottom side is light golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Using a thin metal spatula, turn sausage patties onto uncooked side, leaving an open area in the center of the skillet. Add onion, lower heat to medium, and cook, using wooden spoon to break up sausage into 1/2- to 1-inch pieces, until sausage is just cooked through and onion is softened, about 2 minutes; lower heat at any point if sausage or onion threaten to scorch.
2. Increase heat to medium-high and add wine. Bring to a simmer and cook, swirling pan and scraping up any stuck-on bits with wooden spoon, until wine is reduced by roughly half, about 30 seconds.
3. Add cream, bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring frequently to keep cream from scorching on sides of the pan, until sauce is slightly thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and reduce heat to lowest possible setting to keep sauce warm and prevent it from over-reducing.
4. Meanwhile, in a pot of salted water, cook pasta until just shy of al dente (about 2 minutes less than the package directs). Using a spider skimmer, transfer pasta to sauce, along with 1/2 cup (120ml) pasta cooking water. Alternatively, drain pasta using a colander or fine-mesh strainer, making sure to reserve at least 1 cup (240ml) pasta cooking water.
5. Increase heat to high and cook, stirring and tossing rapidly, until pasta is al dente and sauce is thickened and coats noodles and pools around edges of the pan, about 2 minutes; add more pasta cooking water in 1/4-cup (60ml) increments as needed to achieve desired consistency.
6. Remove from heat, add Pecorino Romano, and stir rapidly to incorporate. Divide between warmed serving bowls, top each portion with a grinding of black pepper, grated nutmeg, cheese, and truffle (if using). Serve immediately.

Pasta alla Norma
Sicilian Pasta with Eggplant, Tomatoes and Ricotta Salata
By J. Kenji López-Alt
From the website “Serious Eats”
 
Cook: 40 minutes
Active: 30 minutes
Total: 40 minutes
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
3/4-pound small Italian or Japanese eggplants (2 to 3 small eggplants), trimmed, split in half lengthwise, and cut into 3/8-inch half-moons (see notes)
Kosher salt
3 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand into 1/2-inch chunks
1-pound dry ridged, tubular pasta such as rigatoni or penne rigate
Handful fresh small basil leaves, or roughly torn large leaves
2 ounces aged ricotta salata, finely grated (see notes)
 
Directions:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a 12-inch nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add as much eggplant as fits in a single layer and season with salt. Cook, shaking pan occasionally, until eggplant is well browned on both sides, about 10 minutes total. Transfer eggplant to a plate and set aside. Repeat with remaining eggplant, adding olive oil as necessary, until all eggplant is browned.
2. Add any remaining olive oil and increase heat to medium-high. Heat until olive oil is shimmering. Add garlic, oregano, and pepper flakes, and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant but garlic is not browned, about 30 seconds. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly until evenly incorporated and tomato paste starts to fry. Add crushed tomatoes and their juice. Bring to a boil, reduce to a bare simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is thickened into a sauce-like consistency, about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt.
3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid. Return pasta to pot.
4. Add sauce to pasta and toss to coat, adding reserved pasta water as necessary to thin sauce to desired consistency. Add eggplant slices and toss to combine.
5. Serve pasta immediately, drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil, garnished with grated ricotta salata and torn basil leaves.

Vanilla Cupcakes
By Yossy Arefi
The New York Times/NYT Cooking
 
Total Time: 45 minutes
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 12 cupcakes
 
Ingredients
 
For the Cupcakes
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons/145 grams all-purpose flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons/125 grams granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
⅔ cup/160 milliliters buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3 tablespoons neutral oil
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
 
For the Vanilla Frosting
½cup/113 grams unsalted butter, softened but cool
1¾cups/175 grams sifted confectioners’ sugar
Pinch fine salt
1tablespoon vanilla extract
½teaspoon lemon juice
1 to 3teaspoons heavy cream or milk
Sprinkles (optional)
 
Preparation

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Prepare the cupcakes: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl), combine the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir to combine. Add the butter and mix on low until the mixture is sandy and the butter is evenly distributed.
3. In a large measuring cup, whisk to combine the buttermilk, eggs, oil and 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract.
4. Add half of the buttermilk mixture to the bowl of the mixer and mix on low until incorporated, then add the second half of the mixture and mix on low until well combined. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, then turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix for 30 seconds, until the mixture is smooth. The batter will be loose.
5. Divide the mixture among the prepared liners. (They will be about halfway full.) Bake the cupcakes for 18 to 20 minutes until just cooked through with little to no browning on top. Set the cupcakes in the pans on cooling racks for 5 minutes, then gently remove them from the pans and set them on the rack to cool completely before frosting.
6. While the cupcakes cool, make the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the confectioners’ sugar and salt and mix on low speed until the sugar is moistened. Turn the mixer to medium-high and stream in the vanilla, lemon juice and 1 teaspoon heavy cream. Mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, adding more cream as needed to make a smooth and easily spreadable frosting.
7. Frost the cupcakes, top with sprinkles if desired, and serve. The cupcakes and frosting can be made and stored separately one day ahead of time, covered, at room temperature.

SWEET DANI B’s SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE
Ingredients
4 cups all-purpose flour   
1/4 teaspoon salt              
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature          
2 cups granulated sugar            
2 large eggs           
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice OR 1 tsp lemon extract OR 1 tsp vanilla extract
 
Preparation

1. Cream butter, salt and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment- be sure to scrape down sides. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs and lemon juice (or lemon extract or vanilla). Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Dough should begin accumulating on paddle and coming away from the sides of the bowl. If too sticky, add up to 1/4 C extra flour.
   
2. Divide dough in half; flatten each half into a disk. Wrap each in plastic and roll to remove any air bubbles. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1.5 hour or overnight. 
   
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (convection preferred) with racks in upper and lower thirds. Let disks of dough stand at room temperature just until soft enough to roll, (about 1 hour). 
4. Roll out dough between a silpat and a long piece of plastic wrap to ¼ inch thick. Remove top layer of plastic wrap. Cut out cookies with a cookie cutter. Transfer cookie dough on silpat to a baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet to freezer, freeze until very firm, about 10- 15 minutes. Remove baking sheet from freezer, space out cookies and place directly in oven. Roll out scraps, and repeat. Repeat with remaining disk of dough.
   
5. Bake, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges turn just golden, 10 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. 

Dani’s Royal Icing 
Makes 5 cups (frosts 24-30 cookies, depending on size & detail)

Ingredients
½ cup meringue powder
1 cup cold water
2 lbs.  confectioners’ sugar
  
How-to

1. Using a hand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment , beat together meringue powder and water to a smooth texture, removing air bubbles, and swirling the mixer to get at the edges of the bowl
2. Fit beater attachment to the hand mixer and beat in confectioners’ sugar, starting slowly, then increase speed until combined. Brush down sides of bowl and the bottom with a spatula to make sure all ingredients are incorporated and icing has a ribbon-like consistency
3. Transfer to containers and add food coloring as desired. If not using immediately, cover air-tight and store at room temperature. Icing will last a couple of weeks until it starts to dry out. Re-mix briefly when ready to use

 
Notes

1. If the icing is too thick, add water, about 1 tbsp at a time, and beat until the water is thoroughly combined.  If icing is too thin, add more confectioners’ sugar
2. When using royal icing, squeeze bottles work great for designing cookies like Sweet Dani B's Owl Cupcake Toppers, Wooly Sheep, Cocoa Mug and Snow Divas!