Scratch Cooking Day 39

I was a cooking fool all weekend. Let's call it the lost weekend of making dough. And not the green kind, though the gnudi were green from the Swiss chard.

Sunday I finished making the gnudi which we had for dinner with some salad. They were super light and airy and delicious. Juxtaposed with the salty broth and the earthy mushrooms (sauteed in butter, everything is better in butter!), it was perfect. They were easy to make and I would definitely do it again.

I have been eating the left over home made ricotta with fruit in the mornings. Sunday it was organic. local raspberries and this morning it was organic, local mango from the farmers market. They only have them there a few weeks a year and they are bloody expensive but worth the splurge!

I also made the dough for the brioche. Also very easy, and also need to be started the night before you want to bake them.

Then I got inspired to make a quiche for my daughter's lunches. Quiche is another dish that once you have the basics down, you can get very creative. I made a pate brise for the crust. The custard is 1 1/2 cups of cream or half and half mixed with 3 eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Once you pre-bake the crust, you throw in whatever fillings you want and then pour on the custard. Fillings I used were leftover smoked fish, some shredded cheddar, sliced crimini mushrooms a little chopped onion. Pour in the custard, sprinkle with some parmesan, bake for 30 minutes at 375 and, voila, quiche!

I finished cooking the brioche this morning. They look just like brioche and my daughter says they taste like it, too.

And this is something else that I love about cooking. How a few basic ingredients - flour, butter, yeast, salt, milk - can transform from a sticky mass into something elegant and refined. It's like a little alchemic miracle each and every day! It's the same thing I love about growing vegetables. Seeds and dirt becomes squash and beets, beans and carrots. Only with cooking, you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor a lot faster!

Here's the other thing about food and cooking, in times of helplessness it gives you something you can do. I brought quiche, brioche and gnudi to a friend going through treatment for pancreatic cancer. Patrick Swayze died of it today and it can't have been easy for her to hear the news. And there isn't much I can say or do to comfort her. As I well know, cancer sucks. But I can bring her food made with love and make sure that she eats well. It's not much, but it's something.