il mio fine settimana nella cucina

If you don't speak Italian, (which I don't) the above says "my weekend in the kitchen."  That's exactly what I did.
I had just picked up this issue of FN "The Italian Issue."  anyone ANYONE who knows me, knows that I am completely in love OBSESSED with Italy.  Heck I will say it, I want to read all about it, cook recipes from there, travel there, marry an Italian (lord willing ;)), and maybe even eventually live there!  So why NOT get a head start on a dream, and learn all that there is learn about it, and how to cook some of the wonderful, delicious yummies! :)

I had no intention of spending the whole weekend in the kitchen, but I definitely didn't mind! And must I say that I made some yummy things!

 Saturday started with my hunt for Fresh Mozzarella Curds.  I'm determined to find them to make my own Mozzarella.  Needless to say Muskegon is to too tiny of a city to sell these, and was not able to find them (so if anyone knows where I can get them that would be great :))  


So instead I went home and started to work on this... ---------->
Also known as "Chocolate Hazelnut Tart"  I didn't realize at all how much work went into making a tart...making the dough, chill dough, roll dough, put in pan, chill dough, bake dough, make filling(nutella and heavy cream and a few other things), let tart cool, pour in filling.  It doesn't seem like a lot, but it is! :) In the end this was amazing!!! (Let me know if you want the recipe, make sure you have a good 4-5 hours to dedicate to this! :) )

While ambitiously making the tart, I was also making pizza dough to make two more things, which will be shown later, but I never know that you could freeze pizza dough?!  Did you know this you can make it ahead of time and put it in the freezer in plastic wrap for up to a month!! I froze it overnight so that it would be not overtaking my kitchen, and I took it out and it all cooked up wonderfully! I was so happy and will be utilizing this method for pizza dough again!

I had only planned on being in the kitchen for a little amount of time on Sunday, but that never works how it should.  That's o.k., I made some more yummy things. Like this "Banana-Hazelnut Bruschetta" (click on link for recipe)  I didn't get a picture of with the toppings, but you are supposed to put cool whip and hazelnuts on top!! YUM!











And now here comes the Pizza Dough ambition.  I made Zeppoles (click link for recipe), which is fried Pizza Dough! :)  And really as Buddy Valastro said on Cake Boss, when they were in Italy <3, "fried dough is fried dough in any country." I didn't know for sure how they were going to turn out because pizza dough is not that sweet.  Well I made them and put powdered sugar over them and they were rather surprising AND good!!! :) I was very happy, and they were extremely easy to make!



MY FAVORITE: 

Going into making this I thought for sure that this was not going to be favorite, but turned out I loved it and CAN'T wait to make it again, "Raspberry-Almond Pizza" Not a ton of work or ingredients, but the taste was just awesome! And because of the juice from the raspberries (I used frozen), it turned the pizza this pink and red color (perfect for Valentine's Day) and it was juat all around my favorite! I highly recommend this, especially if you l.o.v.e. raspberries!

How was your weekend spent?  Any fun/interesting things you want to share?  Are you cooking, what is your favorite thing to make.  I have so many different recipes from this magazine to make a few include, Sausage and Rigatoni, Pick your Pasta (where you make your own sauce), Pork Marsala, Chicken, Sausage, and Peppers, and sooooo many more I can't even remember the names of them! :)


Ciao!