Carciofi Aglio e Olio - Artichokes in Garlic and Olive Oil

This is the first recipe I've gone back and made again before I've even written about it the first time. True, I do have a bit of a backlog of recipes to write up due to excessive work, Thanksgiving travel and holiday sewing projects, but it doesn't really date that far back. And given my propensity, nay my compulsion to constantly test new recipes, returning so soon to repeat a recipe is definitely something to take note of.

The thing is, I love artichokes. When I was growing up, we most often ate them steamed and served with a vinaigrette or melted butter.

Given the late start on tonight's dinner preparation - supermarket trip and Cardio X workout took priority - we probably won't eat till around 9:30. On a night like tonight, it's true that I'd either stick to a tried and true recipe or something easily whipped up without too many steps. So to choose to simmer the artichokes in a mixture of olive oil and water (the recipe says 2 parts olive oil to 1 part water, but I've amended that a bit... too much oil! I ended up using the inverse proportions) with four or so whole garlic cloves for 30 minutes seems to make much less sense than my family's traditional steam, serve, peel & dip method.

Especially since I had to first prep the artichokes by peeling off some outer tougher leaves, chopping off the tops, quartering them and emptying out the inner choke (there's a great step by step if you're a newbie).

It's just that it's so good! Absolutely delicious. The artichokes are just meltingly good. The garlic cloves are tasty golden flavour interludes. They're even delicious the next day, cold, straight out of the fridge. The preparation might bring the grade down but it is definitely well worth the effort.

Tasty Factor: A Ease of Preparation: B- Modifications: Yes. Cut down on olive oil quantity and doubled or tripled, possibly quadrupled the garlic.

Crema di Legumi - Cream of Dried Legumes Soup

To be honest, I may not have chosen to make this recipe based on the name. The only reason I chose this recipe was that I wanted a white bean soup and I happened to have all the ingredients on hand.

This turned out to be a great recipe and I'm sure I'll be using it again very soon as our weather starts to get colder. I didn't use mixed dried legumes, as the recipe called for, because that requires a type of foresight that I don't often seem to possess. I'm working on that.

I did however have a couple of cans of cannellini beans, which inspired this recipe to begin with. I put about two cups of cannellini in a large pot with a chopped carrot, a chopped celery stalk, a chopped onion and two diced potatoes and covered them with water. I brought this to a boil then simmer till tender. I puréed the veggies with my trusty immersion blender then added a mere two tablespoons of cream (gotta love these cream soups that are so light on the cream!)

I tasted the soup at this point, and while it was pretty good, I decided it could use a little dollop of dry sherry. Shocking, I know. I finished the soup with some truffle oil and chopped parsley, and served it with a touch of grated Parmesan.

The soup was delicious, filling and flavourful. Heary enough for a winter dinner even though this time, we had it as a first course. Quick and easy, but dressed up nicely as a fancy soup course. Definitely much more appetizing than its boring name would lead you to believe.

Tasty Factor: A Ease of Preparation: A- Modifications: Yes. ETBB & some truffle oil.

Filetto di Rombo con Verdure - Halibut Fillets with Vegetables

Since the first phase of our nutrition plan for the P90X workout scheme was low in carbs but high in protein, I'd been avoiding the Silver Spoon for a while, thinking that I'd be primarily making pasta type or otherwise heavy dishes (so glad that stage is over). That was silly. I have barely even grazed the fish section of this book and a fish and veggie heavy dish such as this one seemed pretty good for a post-workout dinner.

The fact that it was also really quick to make and had a mere tablespoon of heavy cream (just enough to fool you into thinking you were being naughty) made it perfect.

The recipe was pretty easy, the worst of it was the chopping of vegetables: I had to slice a half onion, a carrot, a celery stalk and a cup of mushrooms into think slices. Then I cooked them in a large pan with about a half cup of white wine and a half cup of water and simmered them for 15 minutes (until the liquid was reduced). I added the fish fillets, and cooked for another four minutes then removed the fish.

I then mixed in the tablespoon of cream, seasoned it with salt and peppers and heated it just a bit longer. That was it. I spooned all the veggies onto the fish and we devoured it. The fish was really nice, pretty mild but tasty. The vegetables were yummy. I wouldn't really classify this as a "impress your guests" dinner, but for a weeknight meal it hit the spot: quick, tasty and healthful.

Tasty Factor: A- Ease of Preparation: A- Modifications: None. Couldn't really think of any.

Insalata con Melagrana - Mixed Salad with Pomegranate

Ah, the beauty of misreading recipes! I chose this recipe for two reasons. The first is that I recently received two pomegranates from my friend Aram. (He also brought me a big bag of fresh olives to cure myself. So exciting!!!)

The second is that our box surprisingly had three cobs of corn in it, this week. The very last of the season!

This recipe seemed perfect. Perfect, that is, until I actually paid attention to the ingredients. The recipe didn't actually call for corn, but for corn salad. To be honest, I had no idea such a thing even existed, but since it's compared to mâche, I'm sure it's quite tasty. I'll have to try it next time.

On with this recipe... (What? Did you think wrong ingredients would stop me from making it? Come on now. You should know better by now.)I realize that corn isn't native to Italy, but I've had so many salads in Italy that had corn in them, and there are other SS recipes that call for corn. It seemed quite reasonable really.

The salad was delicious: I mixed some arugula, some spinach and some other lettuce we got in our box with the pomegranates and the corn (lightly boiled and sliced off the cob). The recipe called for carrots, which I thought we still had from our box, but apparently we were all out, so the salad was carrotless. The dressing was simple and delicious: 1/2 cup of olive oil, the juice of half an orange, two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and some salt and pepper. The flavours were fantastic - the pomegranates and corn were delightful bursts of sweetness and complemented the greens nicely. I used the leftover dressing for a mixed green salad the next day and it was still quite tasty.

And now that I know what corn salad is, I'll try to track some down for the bresaola salad.

Tasty Factor: A Ease of Preparation: A Modifications: Yes. I substituted corn for corn salad and omitted the carrots.

Coniglio al Miele con Verdure - Rabbit with Honey and Vegetables

I haven't been around lately. Almost two weeks ago, I started a new workout campaign, the P90X, that involved a nutrition plan. Between getting all our workouts done and eating appropriately for the nutrition plan, I didn't have any time to do much more than just cook whatever would feed our poor exhausted aching bodies.

Now that I've had some time to adjust, I was excited today to plan ahead and get a more interesting meal going. I prepped and chopped before our workout began and then it baked while we did our workout.

The dish was so exciting to me - it was a first! I've never cooked rabbit before... in fact, my butcher seems to have not sold rabbit before. I'd noticed that that Faletti's market carried rabbit and had been thinking about getting one. When I asked the butcher for a rabbit, he was so excited... He said no one ever ordered rabbit from him before!

This recipe was perfect since we'd just gotten our box which had carrots and green beans in it. I just bought a few turnips and some peas and I was all set. The hardest part was figuring out how to butcher the rabbit. I did a "How to" google search and the best thing I could come up with was the fabulous Brett's Flickr image of a rabbit he chopped into pieces. A lovely photo indeed, and fine work on his part, but I needed more help. A step-by-step preferably.

The best description I found was this:

1) With a large, heavy knife trim the ends of the front and hind legs.

2) Cut off the front and hind legs at the joints. Cut the hind legs into 2 pieces at the joint and the body into 3 equal sections. Cut the rib section in half through the breast and back bones and then cut each half in half.

And while there were steps, they weren't quite as detailed as I'd hoped.

Oh well, I figured this will have to do and I forged on ahead, chopping up the rabbit as well as I could. Not nearly as neat and pretty as Brett, but serving pieces nonetheless. I then melted most of a stick of butter and a tablespoon of honey. Sounds delicious already. (Can you tell I've been feeling deprived?)

I put the rabbit pieces in and cooked them for a few minutes, turning them often till they were browned all over and then removed them from the pot and put them aside.

I added 5 tablespoons of white vinegar to the lovely juices and reduced this for a while, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. While this was reducing, I heated a large pot of salted water and cooked the sliced turnips (4 small ones), sliced carrots (also 4), two thirds of a cup of green beans and a half cup of peas for about 5 minutes. Then I strained them and tossed them in the rabbit juice, added the rabbit, gently mixed to coat everything, put a lid on it and tossed it all in a preheated oven (400º). I baked this for 45 minutes while we did our workout. I have to say, there is something supermotivating about working out while smelling your delicious reward baking for you in the oven. It really did smell fantastic.

I served it with a simple green salad and we opened a bottle of our leftover wedding wine (a bounty that seems to go on and on). It was delicious!!! The rabbit was very flavourful - the sauce fantastic. The thicker parts of the rabbit were a little bit on the tough side, but the smaller ones, where the meat was closer to the bone, were juicy and delicious.

The real discovery though was the vegetables. They were so tasty, Big E suggested always cooking our veggies in honey and rabbit juices from here on out. So good!

Tasty Factor: A Ease of Preparation: B+ Modifications: None.