Pecan-Orange Frangipane Crostata with Candied Cranberries

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

We were given a specific recipe for pasta frolla, but we were otherwise allowed to chose our flavors and fillings.

Inspired by the season, I decided to add a pinch of cinnamon to the dough to provide a slight spiciness to counter the filling.  I wanted the filling to be a beautiful, sweet frangipane, created with toasted pecans and a bit of orange zest.

Then, to add another layer of flavor to the dessert, I candied cranberries.  The taste of this extra component was wonderful and the beautiful red liquid added an extraordinary contrast on the plate.

Butternut Squash Soup with Cream & Spiced Nuts

Today, as most Americans are recovering from a massive food hangover, I will be preparing and serving a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

With the help of my good friend Victoria, and a glass of wine or three, we will serve an entire turkey dinner from my closet-sized kitchen, equipped with two gas burners and a counter top oven.

The key to ensuring this dinner goes off without a hitch has been major planning and plenty of advance prep work. Anything and everything that could be made in advance is sitting, neatly labeled in my half-sized refrigerator.

This soup whipped up beautifully a few days before our actual feast. The recipe yielded more soup than I expected, so I simply froze half for the bitter winter days ahead.

To elevate the soup just a bit for serving, I will add a drizzle of heavy cream and a pinch of spiced nuts, which conveniently can also be made ahead of time.

Now that I am armed with a beautiful appetizer, I can focus my attention on more important matters, like praying the brining bag does not explode all over the refrigerator.

Nana's Oatmeal Rolls

These rolls have been served at every family Thanksgiving, warm from the oven with a pad of butter melting lazily across the top and down the sides of the bread.

So today, as we eat, drink, visit with family and friends, and give thanks to be so blessed, I would like to share this recipe with all of you.

From my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving. I am blessed beyond words and am reminded of this as the smell of these rolls escapes from the oven. I inhale deeply, the scent filling my nostrils and throat, and I am transported home to Virginia, sitting around my family's table, eating, laughing, enjoying.

Ricotta-Prosciutto Pizza

I have a recipe for pizza dough that I absolutely love. The smooth ball of dough kneads together like silk between my fingers. Then I wrap it lovingly, tightly, place it in the refrigerator, where it sits undisturbed for two days.

But this is not that recipe. 

See, the problem with that pizza dough recipe is it requires planning - a long two nights before actually making and consuming the delicious pizza.

So, when Mike phoned me one afternoon last week, wondering if we might be able to enjoy homemade pizza for dinner that very evening, I reached back into my recipes for the first pizza dough I ever made.

Homemade pizza dough in less than one hour.

Homemade Ricotta

Ricotta cheese has never been a favorite of mine. Perhaps my distaste results from calzones stuffed with incredibly unhealthy amounts of watery, flavorless amounts of this cheese.

As such, I have always steered away from using ricotta as a star ingredient in any of my savory dishes and especially not in any of my sweet desserts.

But my strike against ricotta came to a fateful end at a cozy restaurant in Italy, where Mike and I shared our first non-airline, non-airport food in a long 20 hours. Being in Italy, we chose to indulge in pizza - I chose margarita and Mike chose ricotta with sausage.

After our first few bites, we cut off a slice to exchange with each other. I tentatively took a bite of the ricotta-sausage pizza, hoping to be able to keep down the rubbery, flavorless ricotta on a mostly empty stomach.

But the flavor and texture of the ricotta was shocking. "It's so pillow-y! It's...it's like clouds!" I exclaimed, as the supermodel-esque table next to us glanced over from their salads, annoyed.

Mike agreed with a nod and silent smile.