French Meringues and Other Miscellaneous Discoveries

Well, I'm back in the kitchen and loving it! I hope you've been able to try out the French Meringues I made for you as a gift at our last dinner. I had some friends over for dinner last weekend and made the French Meringues and Berries for dessert. They are just the best dessert, light, sweet and if the berries are served with cream, totally decadent! Here's two photos of the dessert so you can see what a pretty presentation the meringues make as well as adding that touch of sweetness to the berries and cream.

I want to also share with you a website that is too good to be true! joepastry.com will show you how to make almost anything and if we just wait, he'll eliminate the "almost"! What I like is how he explains why you don't want tomatoes to come in contact with aluminum, for example. He tells you about the chemical reactions and gives you solutions to kitchen problems as well as hints. His photos are perfect and professional. Now there is no excuse for mistakes in the kitchen. I am planning to try his raised doughnut recipe...in my eternal quest for the perfect doughnut!

Another note is about stone fruits this summer. Not good is the bottom line. I haven't found any peaches that are what I consider ripe and sweet....not even from my neighborhood farmer, Mr. Cosentino! I think it had to do with a warm (and wet) winter. Stone fruit apparently need a good freeze to produce sweet fruit in the summer.

Anyway, back to the dinner that I cooked last weekend...it was an Italian-French dinner and the main course was a Porchetta Style Roast Pork. It was a big hit and both couples wanted the recipe. That's a sure sign that someone likes what you made, right? If you want to try it, click on the link and you'll find the recipe. I added a Wild Mushroom Ragout that I served over the pork slices. My photograph was terrible so I won't add it...I really need to practice! Here's the photo from Bon Appetít so you'll get an idea of what it looks like. All I can say is that it tastes wonderful and remniscent of the porchetta that we tried when we visited Norcia in Italy. Norcia is know for their cured meats and for porchetta. Of course, their porchetta is 10 times better because it's the whole roast pig but this one is pret-ty good!

I am looking forward to cooking out of the Zuni Cafe Cookbook next. But right now I'm going to brine my chicken so I can try out Thomas Kellar's Fried Chicken recipe tomorrow. Stay tuned!