Diva Challenge #253 - Molygon, Busy Days and Kitchen Adventures

Greetings Gentle Readers,

Last week was very busy, as my sweet husband and I are doing our best to see and do pretty much everything!  OK, I exaggerate, but we have been packing in a bunch of little trips and events.  We attended a huge wine event where we tasted upwards of 80 Bordeaux wines direct from the wineries. (yes, we did dump!) Sometimes American perception of French people is not always so positive, but I can say these people were truly gracious and friendly.  They took time to explain the wines to us, tell us about their harvesting and wine making process and made us - who have never been to France and speak ZERO French - feel very welcome.  We loved it! 

No throwback this week, as I didn't pull my thoughts together, but I may do that again soon.

IN THE KITCHEN
The big deal for me last week was hosting my book club.  Known as "Wine, Women and Wisdom", our group is generally greeted by that month's hostess with wine and nibbles and we laugh, discuss the book and whatever else comes to mind and enjoy a couple of hours of fun.  My chosen book was Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton.  Besides being an entertaining read, this book speaks of the author's relationship with food and cooking on a very personal level.  I bought her cookbook, Prune, which features recipes from her restaurant of that name, and made a variety of goodies (the easy ones) to feed my guests.

The one I wanted to make from the moment I opened the cookbook was Lamb Manti.

 These little suckers had very few ingredients, but oh, what a bugger to make!  You take ground lamb - no seasoning, no fillers - and make teeny-tiny meatballs the size of a level 1/4 teaspoon.  No bigger or they won't fit!  Then take wonton wrappers and cut them into four equal squares.  Moisten the edges and press them into little purse shapes.  For-ever.....this is when I wish I had a couple of pre-teen grandchildren on hand to help!  It took me a couple hours to make these babies, but YUM!  You freeze them, and then bake them for about 13 minutes, then when ready to serve, simmer them in regular canned beef broth (not a fancy dish).  Served with a garlic infused yogurt and drizzled with cayenne butter, these were killer! 

I made little bacon and marmalade sandwiches, deviled eggs, avocado and tomato topped lemon ricotta toasts and corn pound cake with Riesling and rosemary poached pears.  Hungry yet?

But the showstopper was the ICE CREAM!  A basic custard base made with cream, eggs and brown sugar, then enhanced with a balsamic reduction swirl.  OMG, OMG!  Sounds weird, I know.  It makes you think at first it must be raspberry, but then...wait a minute...what is this?  One lady had to leave the meeting to attend to something else, but returned to try the dessert.  She definitely had the happy face when she tasted that ice cream.  My husband finished it off that evening.  Glad I got a couple bites!


DIVA CHALLENGE #253 - MOLYGON

The new recently released official tangle is called Molygon.  I used it once before but revisited it again for this challenge. I love the story of how they got the name for this.  What serendipity!  I wanted to somehow enhance the spaces between the shapes, so here is what I did.   A little gold on the edge, nest them on a bed of Tipple.  Are they mushrooms or metal domes or...who knows?  This was fun!

 

 

So, short and sweet, this is all I have this week.  Slacking..... but I have still followed the boards and love the new Mosaic app on my phone.  Not sure it is offered to the public yet, but as a CZT, I've had an opportunity to test drive it.  Fun!

 

Thank you for the pleasure of your visit, and know that I treasure your thoughts and comments.

 

Namaste,

Antonine