GCC: Menu 22 - Pear, Mascarpone and Hazelnut Tart (Part 2)

March 07, 2011 by Monica

I’m so cheating right now.

Why? Because I should be posting our Gutsy Cooks Club Menu # 23, which is English Muffins which then are used to make Egg Benedict.

And of course that picture above does not look anything like an egg on top of an English muffin smoother with Hollandaise Sauce.

What it looks like is this yummy tart. Filled with a mascarpone filling and poach pears. And it was the second part of my original Menu 22 post from last week.

Yes, guys. I’m behind. See this past week was my last day at my old job and well, things got a way from me with all the preparation that I needed to do in order to call last Friday my last day at work. Of course posting suffered. So, now I’m playing catch up. Hold on to your seats, there will be a tremendous amount of post coming up this week.

ABC: Old-World Braided Coffee Cake

March 01, 2011 by Monica in ABC, Baking, Baking Club, Bread, Cake, Cookbooks

This was our choice for our monthly Avid’s Baker Club where we are working our way to baking the recipes from Flo Braker book “Baking for all Occasions”. So far everything that I have made from this book has been a success, remember the Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee Cake?

Flo mentions that this cake is “reminiscent of recipes from eastern Europe” where apparently they like their yeast-leavened cakes.

Cake you say?

Yeah, I know, it say’s Coffee Cake above. But, you tell me, does that picture above look like a cake to you?

Yeah, I thought you would agree with me.

Because that looks alot like a bread.

GCC: Menu 22 - Chicken Biryani (Part 1)

February 27, 2011 by Monica in Chicken, Cookbooks, Cooking Club, Dinner, Gutsy Cooks Club, Main Courses

Tom and I love Indian food. Ok, maybe that is not accurate, because I been also saying that I love Italian food, and Mexican food, and Latin food ok, I think I also said here that I like Thai as well – Ok, I come clean, I love ALL FOODS. But Indian food is one of my top five.

Like anything that is new to me, I experience it first at a restaurant and then of course I come home and hit the Internet to find it and make it a home. So when our host of the month, Cynthia and Sam choose the menu for this week in our Gutsy Club, I was really excited, since this is one of the dishes we tend to order in our local Indian restaurant. As I wrote on our Gutsy Cook pre-post, Chicken Biryani, happens to be the most popular Indian recipe around the globe. In India, every region has it’s own version. Some biryani recipes can take hours to prepare. The books recipe is quick and easy since the chicken and rice get cooked together. In less than 30 minutes I had food in our table making this a perfect dish for any day of the week.