Is it that late already?

It appears that my spontaneous mini-break from blogging has turned into a month! I just went through the folder on my computer of all the food photos since December 10th and I just don't know where to begin with it all. It's amazing how many meals one cooks and eats in a month. Of course not everything is worth writing about, but still, it's a lot of material to sift through. I am amazed at the theme running through those photos. Apparently December and January (so far) have been carb-heavy weeks for me as there is a staggering amount of baking and fresh pasta amongst those photos.

Apropos of that, I have recently tried to make a couple of the fresh pasta recipes from the Silver Spoon, which is meant to be the ultimate in Italian cooking, but honestly, neither recipe worked very well for me. The basic egg pasta dough is too dry (a third egg does the trick) and the basic potato gnocchi recipe is too wet - those darling little gnocchis, which are a pain in the behind to shape - fall apart when cooked. I wonder has anyone else had issues with the recipes from the Silver Spoon?

Also prevalent in the December photo file are appetiser/hors d'ouvres recipes. Cakes and I weren't planning on doing any entertaining this year, but decided at the last minute (28 hours in advance, actually) to have several friends over on the Friday before Christmas. In the car on the way home from work on the Wednesday, Cakes drove and  I wrote a menu and shopping list on the back of an envelope from the glovebox.

We spent Thursday evening as a prep night, and Friday night from 5 to 6 assembling everything. All told, we spent maybe 3 hours working time in the kitchen. I was amazed. I usually fart around for much longer when we are having people over. I guess it just shows that maybe we don't need to always spend so much time.... Here's the menu:

• baby feta and dill fritattas
• creme fraiche and caviar baby potatoes
• lemon tartlets with vanilla whipped cream
• cheese and garlic fondue with baguette and cherry tomatoes
• deep-fried ravioli
• mushroom & caramelised onion cream cheese turnovers
• assorted warmed olives
• dolmades

Not a single one of these dishes took more than 20 minutes of preparation time, and all of them were really great. The fondue is one I have made before, and I highly recommend trying one if you haven't had it before. It's not all that tricky really, just some cheese (say 400 grams of emmenthal and 200 grams of raclette), garlic (4 large cloves please, chopped), flour (2 tablespoons) and wine (the better part of half of a bottle), melted in a pot (the trick is to heat the wine and garlic first anbd then stir in the cheese & flour bit by bit) and sopped up with bread. Sounds like something close to a perfect dinner to me. In the end, we all loved the fondue so much even the fried ravioli ended up getting dunked!

In case you haven't had your complete fill of cocktail parties and the like, why not try these little fritattas at your next one. I've been tempted to make them for a brunch as well.

Baby feta and dill fritattas

• ½ cup good quality crumbled (not creamy) feta
• 1 tablespoon fresh dill, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
• ½ cup large curd ricotta (or dry curd cottage cheese)
• 5 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• Salt
• Pepper

Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Because the feta is quite salty, you might want to test the level of salt in the mixture before you decide how much to add. To test the mixture for seasoning, drop a teaspoonful of mixture on a small plate and microwave for several seconds until cooked. This technique also works very well for patties and meatloaves, where you don’t want to consume the raw food, but need to check the seasoning.

Using a small ladle, fill the well greased cups of a 24 cup mini muffin pan until each cup is about ¾ full. Bake mini frittatas for 15- 20 minutes, or until firm and starting to brown on top. Cool in pan. Loosen side with a knife and pop the frittatas out of the pan. These are great hot or cold. They’d be fantastic for a picnic!

Makes 24.

Comments

[Anna]

I've had exactly the same problem with the Silver Spoon gnocchi recipe - the gnocchi didn't completely fall apart in the pan but it certainly wasn't the normal gnocchi texture, much too soft. I have made some great meals from the book though, especially the lamb recipes.

[Sonya]

I am glad that you are back from your break. I am one of those readers that has never commented - that's changed now. I enjoy reading and trying out your recipes, the Lemon Lavender cookies were the gift cookie hit; though I got sick of eating them after the umpteenth batch. Happy New Year!

[Pille]

Those appetisers sound delicious! I'm going to try your feta frittatas (I've made something rather similar with spinach - see here - that I love), and I hope you'll post a recipe for mushroom & caramelised onion cream cheese turnovers and creme fraiche and caviar baby potatoes, too!

[Brilynn]

That sounds like an amazing meal to put together in such a short time!
I had a little trouble with the Silver Spoon pasta, I should have added that extra egg, but I didn't.

[Jeanne]

That's it - these little guys are going onto my "to do" list. Just think of the fun you can have playing with different flavours! And the best is that you can make them ahead of time as a starter/canape course. Thanks for the inspiration :)

[Nicola]

I'm thrilled you've returned to the blogosphere! Even though I haven't commented before, your blog is one of my absolute favourites. I love your recipes and your writing. Welcome back and happy new year!

[Lydia]

I love little frittatas made in muffin tins -- they ARE perfect for picnics, and always look beautiful on a platter for brunch, too. Welcome back to blogging!

[Heath]

Mmm. I made the baby frittatas this morning - they were delicious!

I wonder how they'd do in normal-size muffin tins, perhaps baked in a water bath?

[Gourmet]

Yumm yumm!!! What a georgeous recipe.... ;-D