A Tale of Two Meals

Two types of cooking this weekend.  On Saturday we did a group cooking event doing yet another venture in the Italian cooking exploration while on Sunday we showed the value of great ingredients done simply.

Saturday was dedicated to the production of a Sfinciuni - a specialty of the city of Palermo in Sicily - and pronounced like symphony.  It a thin two crusted pizza type product.  I had the whole de-I Sandia Outfitters team on this.  Wild Bill's (trusted Outfitter guide) wife, Wild Jill provided the house, dough, and dessert.  Gauis Derf's (long-time client - he's to Sandia Outfitters what the Washington Generals are to the Harlem Globetrotters) wife Agent W provided the filling.  Wife and I provided various antipasti to keep us through the meal.

First the antipasti

Shrimp butter crostini

(Cooked shrimp processed with butter, parsley, and lemon juice)

Fritatta Salad

(Thin fritatta cut into strips like noodles mixed with escarole, orange slices, olive oil, and lemon juice)

Sweet and Sour Onions

(a repeat from a couple of weeks ago)

Sfincuini Process

Assembling 

Checking progress in the oven

Resting

Cutting

Consuming

Lubricating

Dessert was panna cotta with fresh berries

After the extensive cooking on Saturday making the three antipasti we went simple on Sunday for our friends B & M from Mexico.  I made some steamed veggies (zucchini, jicama, fennel, and carrots) with a homemade aioli, baked potatoes and steak over the fire.  B brought over a couple of excellent California Syrah.  M brought some plums and peaches from their trees picked just before they came over.  I cut them up, sauteed them in butter, brandy and brown sugar for just a couple of minutes and then served them over some leftover homemade ice cream Wife had in the freezer.  Nothing extravagant but so good because all the basic components were so good.