Recipes

Here's my recipe for decadent pumpkin cheesecake. It's rich, spicy and creamy...a great cross between traditional pumpkin pie and baked cheesecake. You can use pecans or walnuts in the crust instead of hazelnuts. As you bake your cheesecake, check out this handy tip.

OK, the name of this fabulous appetizer doesn't sound too appealing nor romantic to some folks. How about crostini di fegatini? This is definitely not your run of the mill chopped liver! It's a very typical and delicious appetizer served in Tuscany as part of a platter of other crostini (toasted bread with a topping).
Spread the liver "pate" on toasted rounds of baguette or leave it in a pretty crock and surround with bread for your guests.

Continuing with Thanksgiving theme, this is my Italian twist on basic roast turkey. It works well for roast chicken also.

When you carve the turkey, make sure each slice has a bit of proscuitto too!

Thanksgiving is on Monday! Time to think about Roast Turkey. Roast turkey is one of my favourite festive dishes to prepare. This is my mum's high heat roasting method that she swears by. The turkey always comes out moist and juicy, and it sure beats having to roast it for hours on end!

I don't stuff the turkey when I use this method, as the stuffing would not heat properly and kill off any salmonella.

Now that autumn is full swing, the cool weather gets me thinking of winter vegetables like hard squashes and a variety of root vegetables like carrots, rutabagas/turnips and different potatoes. Traditionally, these vegetables served as staples over the winter and kept well in root cellars.

Now that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, you might want to try this recipe to accompany your roast turkey. You can use this recipe as a base for other veggies like fennel, butternut squash or beets.

Cookbook Mania looks like an awesome resource for learning about new cookbooks.

I am seriously tempted to buy "The Miminalist Cooks at Home" after reading their review.

While I'm on a ginger kick, here's my recipe for Ginger Scones. This recipe is for Michele, one of my advisors. I made these for an Advisory Committee meeting a long time ago and I've been owing her the recipe since!

This pasta is the best dish I've eaten all week, lovingly cooked by Roland! It's a lovely combination of fresh zucchini (they're still lurking around in a lot of gardens!), pancetta, garlic and cream. Roland used spicy pancetta this time and it added a nice kick. I particularly like this because the pure, fresh flavours of the ingredients are highlighted by its simplicity.

As you may have noticed, I love lemon and ginger! This is one of my favourite cookie recipes. It combines that bright, cheery zing of lemons with that warm, fiery spiciness of ginger in a chewy cookie. Sometimes I double or triple this recipe and make really big cookies. The cookie monsters at the climbing gym are growling for cookies. I think I'll bake a batch this weekend.

Yet another cool recipe from Al: German Pancakes with Fresh Fruit