“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke This simple recipe for Olive Oil and Orange Cake celebrates the turning of the season. While it still feels a lot like winter most days, the buds on the trees have opened, a few sprigs of flowers have emerged next to mounds of melting snow, and the birds that left in late autumn have returned with their old familiar songs. Let’s bake a cake that is much like the end of March, a little bit sweet, a little bit savory.
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I first experienced red wine pasta (yes, this dish is an experience) while in Tuscany. It was on a long drive to escape the rain that we came upon a small osteria, somewhere outside of Chianti. I’m still not entirely sure that it was open. However, we were seated and exchanged pleasantries in Italian. There was no menu. The old woman who greeted us might have also been the cook, I’m not entirely sure. She returned with two plates of the most gorgeous colored spaghetti I had ever seen.
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A luxuriously decadent, grown-up dessert. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I wanted to make a fun and sophisticated treat. Then it happened! Chocolate red wine cupcakes. Oh, yes… These decadent and grown-up chocolate cupcakes are made with a blend of natural and Dutched unsweetened cocoa, hinted with Bordeaux, and swirled with luscious homemade buttercream. You decide if you want to frost them with vanilla or chocolate, I’ll give you the recipes for both. And yes, even the frosting has red wine. No store-bought boxed cake mix here. Just a few pantry ingredients and a couple of minutes is all it takes to make these cupcakes from scratch.
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It’s January in New Jersey. That means most of our local farms have closed for the winter and the ones that remain open have only few precious produce to choose from, like eggs, potatoes, onions, winter squash and if we’re lucky maybe some leftover winter apples. I will happily make do. In fact, one of my favorite winter ingredients is the onion. So versatile! If a recipe calls for caramelized onions, I’m all in. So today I want to share a Caramelized Onion & Olive Appetizer recipe. This is a great crowd-pleaser, too! So make a double batch and include it as part of your Super Bowl Sunday party menu.
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It’s soup season. When the wind is moaning and there are daggers of ice in the rain, or when mounds of fallen snow have drifted against my door, I seek a warm crackling fire, my hands wrapped around a hot bowl pulled close to my chest, and no place where I have to go. Now that the holidays are over and the calm of January is upon us, soup season is officially in full swing.
