Good morning, Bella fans!
Hope everyone is having a glorious Labor Day Weekend because labor is the word over here. Sheesh, I'm too pooped to pop.
We've been very busy this past week, albeit silent about our efforts online. Would you like the good news or the bad news? Okay, the bad first. We had our first official flop, and by flop I mean toss it in the trash - even I won't eat it. What was it, you ask? It was our first attempt at Sweet Potato Bread with orange juice, lemon zest, cinnamon, brown sugar, nutmeg and ginger. But that sounds so good, you say. And the idea was so brilliant, I add (especially since it was mine). But the final result - blah. No, not just blah, ick. No, not just ick, awful. Bitter. Disappointing. Unhappiness.
I know, I know. After what we've been through, this should be the worst thing that happens to us. But oh, if you'd only smelled the dough - we had such high expectations. We were counting the minutes until the bread was done - we could hardly wait the hour to let it set before tearing off a chunk of the end. Pfeh. What a disaster.
But there is good news, and plenty of it. Being the bread afficiando I now am, I told Mommy to expand her repertoire (those lessons from my french bulldog cousins are really paying off) into pizza. The dough is super easy, from Jim Lahey's "My Bread" which is our bible of bread baking, and Mommy and I put our stubborn heads together to come up with toppings.
Our guinea pigs were our dear new friends from Italy, Marianna and Carlo. Are you crazy serving pizza to Italians, you ask? Yes, I reply. We are crazy. Crazy like a fox! We made four kinds of pizzas, although we sadly only photographed two so forgive me for being such a tease. Here they are, in no particular order - creme fraiche with salmon and dill, shaved asparagus with parmesian cheese, rapini with carmelized onions and red chili flakes, and grapes with rosemary (see photos below). Snarf city! They were delish!
And for dessert? Get this - we melted bittersweet chocolate and then stirred in crushed up Frito Lays. Yep, I said Frito Lays! We spread the mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and then topped the chocolate with more crushed Fritos so it looked like brittle (see photo below). Then we popped the whole thing, baking sheet included, into the freezer to let it set. We broke it into pieces, scooped some on top of vanilla bean ice cream and sprinkled it with saigon cinnamon sugar. OMG. Incroyable!
But back to our regularly scheduled bread bake. I do so love to race up the stairs in the morning to the smell of freshly baked bread and this morning did not disappoint. Mommy surprised me with a new creation - ricotta almond bread with lemon zest (see photo) and it was a beauty. I'm drooling as I type, because I haven't yet sampled the loaf but I fully intend to before lunch. A girl can live by bread alone :-)
So that's all the news that's fit to blog. Time to go put an Asiago Cheese Round in the oven for Uncle Josh and Aunt Darcy who we're seeing tonight for supper. Mommy and Daddy don't know it yet, but I plan to stick my head in the door before they can close it and go with them. hehe
Love and licks to all,
Bellalicious
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