Haute Couture in the Kitchen: Sins and Pleasures von Paola Buratto Caovilla

My favorite Spicy Ginger Tea

After a couple of weeks of over-indulging on festive food, I was feeling slightly nauseous today.
My boyfriend makes a great tea that worked asap.

This are is instructions, man-style:

All of this goes into a pot of boiling water:

Crush half of a Ginger Root with a Hammer.
Throw in some Cinnamon Sticks.
3 or 4 Cloves.
Half of a small Chilli Pepper.

Hang out around the pot and taste the brew every now and then,
Ten to fifteen minutes should be enough.

Sounds whack, but it is actually quite delicious hot or cold.

add honey or brown sugar to sweeten.

Here are some of the Health benefits he wants you to know about:
http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/10-health-benefits-of-ginger.html

picture source: I took it!

Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake

If you are bored on the weekend and want to save some money and have something yummy in your lunch bag, why don't you make Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake ? A great way to use very ripe bananas, this easy-to-make cake incorporates everything you love about banana bread and adds a few more favorites—chocolate, walnuts, and cinnamon—for good measure. (It's also much more tender, with a light, moist crumb.)

yield: Makes 8 servings

active time: 30 min

total time: 2 1/2 hr

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened, plus 2 tablespoons, melted and cooled
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
• 2/3 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 (3 1/2- to 4-ounce) bar 70%-cacao bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup walnuts (3 ounces), toasted , cooled, and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle. Butter a 9-inch square cake pan.

Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt.

Beat together softened butter (1 stick) and 3/4 cup sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in eggs 1 at a time until blended. Beat in bananas, yogurt, and vanilla (mixture will look curdled).

With mixer at low speed, add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated.

Toss together chocolate, nuts, cinnamon, melted butter, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl. Spread half of banana batter in cake pan and sprinkle with half of chocolate mixture. Spread remaining batter evenly over filling and sprinkle remaining chocolate mixture on top.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 30 minutes, then turn out onto rack and cool completely, right side up.

Cooks' note: Cake can be made 2 days ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.

The recipe for Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake comes from Gourmet magazine, February 2008, and is posted on Epicurious.

Vintage Cookbook

I found this cookbook "Some Favorite Southern Recipes" of the Duchess of Windsor in a charity shop in the Hamptons (where else in the world would people have a cookbook like this?)
The dust jacket notes say:
"This discriminating selection by the Duchess of Windsor comprises nearly 140 recipes; an all of them have been tested and verified by the Home Institute of the New York Herald Tribune. The dishes chosen by the Duchess include soups, fish and shellfish, meats and cheese dishes, vegetables, hot breads, salads, desserts, cakes and preserves. A few typical Southern menus are given, and also a brief selection of the Duchess' favorite foreign recipes." In her foreword The Duchess of Windsor: "Every country in Europe has certain dishes for which it has always been famous. That is many times true of the United States, which has a different culinary tradition for every large section. I myself am most familiar, of course, with Southern cooking, and especially the dishes of Maryland..I have been very happy to help carry some of the well-known dishes of my native land to other countries, and especially to have served on my table Southern dishes which appeal to the Duke...It is the simple dishes of my homeland which are most popular with me, and which are the ones most popular with me, and which are the ones most frequently served at my table." Some of the recipes include: Martha Washington's light potato rolls, Soft Virginia egg bread, Lady Baltimore cake, Mount Vernon gingerbread, Rhubarb cake, Chicken gumbo, Maryland fried chicken, Lord Baltimore crab, Lima beans piquant, glace aux mangoes, Maryland oyster pie, spiced peaches, Virginia mincemeat, Orange sweet potatoes, Martha Washington's "quaking" pudding, Shrimp creole, Maryland chowder, Terrapin a la Maryland, Turnip Greens, to name just a few.

And all this from the woman who said you can never be too thin or too rich.