Palmabella's Passions

Lots and lots of blueberries. I had already made blueberry jam, so...

We started the day with Blueberry French Toast with marscapone cream.

and ended it with

I didn't use a recipe. I threw everything I wanted to get rid of into the blender. Blueberries, buttermilk, a little sugar, some honey, a little cream. It looked the right consistency, and tasted good, so I chilled the mixture in the morning, and tossed it in the ice cream maker around 4:00. At 9:00, it was frozen and delicious.

On June 27, 2008, Judy (Diva) blogged about her visit to an agriturismo (working farm in Italy) where the BEST pasta is made in Gragnano.

Coincidentally, a friend received a bag of this pasta from an Italian house guest. She had no idea what to do with it, so she gave it to me! Whoo Hoo!. It has been in my pantry for two months. I took it out on Sunday.

I boiled the pasta, and made of mixture of ricotta, 10 oz. of frozen spinach (drained and chopped), one egg, beaten, and some parmigiano. Inside each tube, I put a small piece of buffalo mozzarella, and some of the ricotta-spinach mixture.

I made a basic bechemel sauce. Melt 4 T. butter with 4 T. flour, then add 2 c. milk, stirring until it boils and thickens. I added 4 oz. of leftover gorgonzola cheese to the finished bechemel.

Place a little of the sauce in bottom of a baking dish. Stuff all the pasta tubes. Top with remaining sauce, and sprinkle with parmigiano. Bake 30-35 min. at 350.

We somehow convinced ourselves, that by eating a spinach salad with the spinach in the pasta, we were eating a great vegetarian meal. But it was delicious!

What to have for dinner? This is a constant topic for thought and discussion at our house.

Last night I came up with lemon-garlic orzo with grilled squash and peach-bourbon-rosemary pork brisket.

I gathered a few ingredients to combine with the lemon-garlic orzo I bought in San Diego.

I roasted garlic, cooked the orzo, and added torn basil leaves, a little olive oil, the garlic, some lemon zest, grilled zucchini and yellow squash, and a little shaved grana padano cheese.

The pork was on sale at Costco. I had never heard of pork brisket, but I bought it.
I marinated the pork slices in bourbon, brown sugar, olive oil, and fresh rosemary. Brad grilled them, and then grilled a peach with rosemary and a drizzle of honey. The peaches served on the pork were wonderful.

This week, Terry chose a wonderful and creamy version of pina colada sherbet. This is a very simple and delicious recipe from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop.
It contains a fresh pineapple, and thai coconut milk. Light, creamy and very refreshing!

I paired mine with coconut shortbread:

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 c. rice flour
1 c. butter (soft)
1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. coconut

Mix together flours, butter, and sugar in a food processor or mixer. Dough will be VERY soft. Smush it together with your hands. Add coconut. Spread into a 9x9 baking pan, and flatten with a spatula. Using tongs of a fork, make indentations across the dough in both directions. Then prick the dough 10-12 times. Bake at 350 for about 30 min. until edges begin to brown.

The ice cream in my freezer is getting out of hand. This is one devoted shelf in the kitchen, and there are two more tubs in the garage fridge! This weekend it was time to get rid of some. All the rest will go to our dogsitter soon!

I gave away two tubs. One went to work, and one to a friend. Then we made floats!

Here is a "guava colada" with coconut rum, guava nectar, and diet 7-up!

Remember that thyme-honey sorbet? It was nice with some thyme and lemon muddled in the bottom of a glass, with citron vodka, lemonade and a splash of a lemon-lime soda.

Finally, I used some mango sorbet, Alize liquor, mango nectar, and diet lemon-lime soda for this float:

Lots of leftovers, not much motivation...

We started with a delicious salad of leftover figs, gorgonzola and spinach.

2 ounces of leftover marscapone mixed with leftover pesto sauce made a delicious, creamy pasta!

This was the platter of stuffed fruit I took to my book club meeting:

A couple of those leftover stuffed apricots made a great dessert!