Blueberry muffin bread with cream cheese filling and fig muffins

 

 

My birthday came and went last week. I would have added quietly, but have you noticed how birthdays are on steroids since the advent of the book of faces? But hey, don't misundertstand me. I am grateful for each and every birthday wish I received. Especially the kind words from that girl I think I knew in nursery school; and from that friend of a friend of a friend that I have never met but that I know goes running three times a week, 8km each time, and whose heart - according to her status - is broken; she would willingly turn back time if only she could, if only he would let her.

But back to more important things. Me.
So, I am a year older and if truth be told, I feel better about myself and my life now than I did in my early twenties. Sure, this feeling of self assuredness comes with some usually-although-not-always well concealed grey hair, a wrinkle or two (thank goodness I can still use single digits for those) and a few extra pounds, but I am not complaining.

 

 

A birthday celebration these days no longer involves two hundred of my very best friends and drunken dancing.

It means meeting up for a quick, unplanned lunch with F and enjoying the guilty pleasure of sushi sans kids, a small beer during my lunch break, almost an hour of uninterrupted talk and holding hands every now and then without squealing and gagging sounds as accompaniment.

 

 

 

 

It means picking up my daughter, who may or may not have forgotten it was my birthday until way after she sulked because I did not agree to invite half of the class over for a playdate. But it doesn't matter, because when she finally did remember, I got a beautiful drawing that  I had watched her and her friends working on hidden behind a secretive wall of backpacks in the school square the day before.

 

 

 

 

It means a simple week night dinner at home, the usual racous, messy affair but the grand finale of a birthday cake complete with candles and presents.

This year, it was exactly what I wanted and all that I needed: an impromptu daytime date with my husband and a simple dinner at home with my family. A quiet, unnoticed affair... well, if it wasn't for FB, that is.

 

 

 

 

Since I didn't bake a cake for my birthday like I have in past years, the only baking that went on over the week end was for this blueberry muffin bread and simple muffins with a fresh fig topping. 

 

 

 

  

I first was inspired to make the blueberry bread when I saw a pin on Pinterest. However, when I was getting ready to make it I realized the recipe actually did not include cream cheese, although I thought it did for some reason when I pinned it. So I started looking up recipes on the Internet and to my surprise found what I was looking for on Anecdotes and Apple Cores, a blog I have been following for quite a few years now. I made some very minor adjustments and also ended up making an extra batch of the batter minus the cream cheese filling for the fig muffins*.

 

Blueberry apple pie

 

 

 

  

I will be honest with you, I made this pie about three weeks ago, so it has taken me more than a while to post about it and if I wait any longer, berry season will be over although it is just starting!

 

Blogging has taken a bit of a back seat in the past week or so. I have been spending long hours in the office and a lot has been going on. I feel like I am stuck in some TV show where people wear power suits and talk about mergers, acquisitions, migrations, black out periods and financial jargon that I don't even know how to use appropriately most of the time. So far so good, but I suspect there will be some ugly susprises ahead.

 

 

 

The few moments when I did have a chance to blog, my absolute priority was reviewing Tori's book because she had been so sweet to send it to me immediately and I was afraid that with everything that was going on it would, unjustly, sit on my desk for weeks before I got another chance.

So here I am now, posting about pie when pie is the last thing I can eat these days.

  

The time has come for me to cut down on calories and get in some extra exercise. It has been raining so much lately, I haven't been keeping up my normal running schedule and the winter months (I like to convince myself it was just them) have left their mark. My tummy is growing at an alarming pace and seems to have taken on a deceptive shape.

 

 

 

You know your no-pie time (perhaps this is a good instance to use the phrase black out period???) has come when two people (men for Pete's sake!) in three days enquire about your, ehm ...ripening state.

So, fine. You laugh it off when the octagenarian hanging out on a bench while you are helping your kid with his dangerously melting ice cream cone asks you whether your next one is a boy or a girl (trying to ignore the fact that this is usually a question people ask when you are visibly pregnant, definitely more than 4 months). After all, said octagenarian has little else to do all afternoon and he did witness the combined lethal effect of bending over AND forgetting to suck in your stomach whilst concentrating on dark dark chocolate dripping all over the place. It has happened before and it will happen again (although admittedly you had hoped not quite so soon). Big deal!

 

 

 

But when you are on your morning run and another runner crosses your path and gesticulates at your stomach with a surprised yet admiring look as if to say "expecting and running - you go girl!"...

That, Mr., is what I call crossing the line. Why the f*** do you think I am out running at 6am if not to get rid of that belly which, incidentally, is not THAT big???

Mental note to self: don't feel too good about yourself when all that running you have been doing starts giving you more shapely legs because apparently when the whole of you was out of shape, at least you looked fat and not pregnant!

So yes, I am not eating pie these days, but a girl can dream, can't she? Delicious flakey, buttery crust, warm cinnamony apples, juicy bursting berries, sweet crimson juices and cold vanilla ice cream... just make it because you can, will ya?

 

 

 

Black and white chocolate berry tart

When it comes to grilling, every country in the world has its traditions. In the US a BBQ just isn't a BBQ without hamburgers and hot dogs. In Italy, grilling or la grigliata is all about our friend the pig. The preferred meat is undoubtedly pork. A hamburger is a very rare (no pun intended) find, but there will be no lack of sausage in all shapes and sizes on an Italian grill and even pork ribs, chicken and lamb will often make an appearance.

And then, the one thing you will find at pretty much every BBQ in Italy, the spiedino.

It looks pretty much the same (and tastes pretty much the same if you ask me) wherever you go, north or south, east or west, at a town fair or in your back yard. It is a brochette with alternated pieces of pork in various forms (sausage, pancetta, pork loin), red or green peppers for a dash of color, and onions and frankfurters if you get lucky.

Perhaps you have to be an Italian to really appreciate it and I will not argue the importance of its presence on la griglia as long as you don't start questioning that delicious, juicy burger on my grill. But I love pretty much everything else a grigliata has to offer: summer, friends, ripe red tomatoes, flowing local wine, cold beer, salami made by the farmer next door, wonderful grilled and marinated vegetables picked in the morning from the garden, lamb chops and sausage, beautiful landscapes and if you get really lucky, the ancestor of the modern BBQ, a grill over an authentic wood fire.

The kids made perfume: note the fig and green tomato for fruitiness

And to top it off a summery tart that is quick to make, not too sweet and cleanses your palate after all that oink oink.

What do you barbecue where you come from?

Ingredients (for 12 servings)

For crust

250 gr (1 box) Digestives (or graham crackers)

130gr butter

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1 tbsp conferctioner's sugar

For filling (adapted from a recipe in Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess)

75gr white chocolate, melted (plus a little for decoration)

200gr mascarpone cheese

150gr cream

1 cup raspberries

1 cup blueberries

In a food processor or by hand, crumble the cookies and then mix in the butter, sugar and cocoa. Grease an 11 inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom and press the cookie mixture into the bottom and along the sides. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
Start making your filling by melting the white chocoalte. While it is cooling, beat together the mascarpone cheese and the cream and then gently fold in the white chocolate. Fill the crust and decorate with the raspberries and blueberries, or another berry of your choice, and sprinkle with some grated white chocolate. Serve cold.