Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

When people start making ice cream at home, an infatuation usually begins and interesting flavors quickly start emerging from counter-top ice cream machines. After mastering the simple process of making an ice cream custard, flavor possibilities suddenly seem endless and the thought of willingly returning to plain-Jane vanilla ice cream seems an unimaginable waste of creativity.

But when it comes to ice cream, there is often nothing better than a good scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. This basic flavor is one of the few which pairs seamlessly with desserts of all seasons: a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream alongside a fresh berry tart in the summertime is equally as delicious as the same scoop slowly melting over warm apple pie in the winter.

The 2011 Bloggies

There is no denying the presence of blogs in our daily lives. With a click of a button, bloggers instantly share thoughts, ideas, and opinions with anyone in the world. As the author of this sweet blog, I personally know how meaningful your comments and emails really are. With that in mind, like most time-pressed readers, I also have an ever-growing list of blogs and do not always take the time to express my appreciation of their work.

Luckily, an award known as the ‘Bloggies’ exists for this very reason - to recognize a blogger’s work as meaningful, beautiful, and inspiring. Awards exist in every imaginable category, with more added each year. So I encourage you to take a few minutes and head over to the Weblog Awards to cast your vote.

If Dolcetto Confections happens to be one of your nominations, please know it would be my complete honor. But, above all, I hope you will nominate the bloggers that inspire you every day; the ones whose posts you anxiously await, bookmark, and feel connected to the author if only by their words and photographs.


You must nominate three unique blogs for each category in which you make a nomination - some of my favorite food blogs are listed on my sidebar if you require some inspiration.  However, you can nominate a blog for more than one award category.  Nominations close January 16th at 10 PM EST.

Winter Farmer's Market: A Photographic Tour

Union Square Greenmarket

http://www.grownyc.org/unionsquaregreenmarket

East 17th Street & Broadway

New York, NY 10003

Subway: 4,5,6,N,Q,R,L to Union Square-14th Street

Days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday

Hours: 8 am to 6 pm

Meyer Lemon-Olive Oil Cake

Come January, my body does not crave sweets in the same manner as the other months of the year. Perhaps I require a period of reprive after spending countless hours baking during the holiday season. Or maybe it is my overconsumption of Christmas cookies and goodies. Whatever the reason, I naturally transition into wanting hearty, healthy eats.

For most chilly January days my diminished sweet tooth presents no issue - Mike must usually be coerced into eating anything other than chocolate chip cookies, so the lack of dessert is no cause for concern. But his mother and aunt joined us for lunch last weekend and not serving dessert was an unimaginable option.

Per their request, we decided to order lunch from our favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant. Flipping through my recipe file, I stumbled upon a recipe for a lemon olive oil cake. It may not be a traditional Italian dessert, but I figured it would pair beautifully with the thin crust, wood-fired pizza and rich, creamy penne vodka.

At the store, a basket of Meyer lemons beckoned me like a ray of sunshine and I immediately decided to utilize these yolk-colored beauties for their traditional relative. As a cross between a mandarian orange and a lemon, Meyer lemons provide a distinguishable sweetness, with far less acidity than a regular lemon.

Winter Chicken Noodle Soup

The remnants of the crippling Christmas snowstorm are still visible here in New York City. The dirty snow drifts slowly melt into the crowded sidewalks, littered with uncollected mountains of trash. As I write, fluffy snowflakes fall steadily outside the living room window. Media outlets are vying to see if the city implements lessons learned from last week’s accumulation. Mike just departed for work, looking especially handsome in his new snow boots and cozy flannel shirt.

And yet this impending snow storm provides a feeling of excitement, the same feeling a child receives on a snow day from school. Once both parties safely return home from work, there is something incredibly romantic about a snowed-in weekend. We stocked our groceries, ran any pressing errands, and now have nowhere to go, nowhere to be for the next two days. We have shelves lined with books, a fancy new Scrabble board, and an endless supply of Mike’s recently bottled hard apple cider.

Such cozy weekends beg for a hearty soup, one with an ability to warm you down to your tippy toes. One of my favorite choices is chicken noodle soup, but the usual bowl can sometimes taste a bit thin. Keeping the classic components of the soup in mind, I created a one-pot version, ensuring every morsel of taste and flavor infuses the resulting soup. The roasting chicken creates the initial layer of flavor, later deglazed with a healthy dose of chardonnay, and eventually the soft, caramelized vegetables drown in flavorful chicken stock.