Taste With The Eyes: Burrata Pizza and Thanksgiving Thoughts

11.07.2008

Burrata Pizza and Thanksgiving Thoughts

My two favorite holidays are Thanksgiving and Passover. No wonder! It is because I cook big meals for family and friends at both. I was just looking at my photographs from last year. Please, come reminisce with me...

I get plenty of pizza dough for the week from the local Italian market so I can make pizza with my nephews while they are here visiting. It has become a tradition. And late Friday night after Thanksgiving last year, the adults had burrata pizza with the remaining pizza dough as we relaxed and drank Champagne.

Another tradition we have here is called "Leftover Day." Family and friends are invited to come by from 1 to 5 PM the day after the big feast to eat leftovers, drink Bloody Marys, and chill out. This year, I have a new basketball court so everyone can shoot some hoops! Whoo Hoo! We get a HoneyBaked Ham so if anyone is done with turkey, have ham! And everyone is encouraged to bring their leftovers. We heat them up and put them on the buffet too. Additionally this year I promised my brother I would have a panini maker, so we can make some awesome turkey or ham sandwiches with all those leftover goodies smashed and grilled together.

OK, back to burrata pizza. Top the dough with a mixture of olive oil, chopped parsley, and garlic, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake until just slightly crispy, remove from the oven, then top with burrata. Big hit! Other ways we enjoyed burrata last year can be found here.

Ha! I am sending this photo to my blogger friend Sandi at Whistlestop Cafe Cooking for her Centerpiece of the Month Event. Every year this ROCK gets big laughs. Yes, it is just a rock I found on the beach but its place card gives everyone a good chuckle on Bird Day. To see some really beautiful centerpieces, do check out Sandi's monthly event!

This is another laugh I get every year. I spend a good deal of time on the appetizers; including fine cheese platters, homemade dips, and barbecuing fresh oysters. But do you know what disappears first? Lil' Smokies with two sauces: BBQ sauce and a blend of mustard and mayo. Some things never change. Maybe you have a similar experience?

This is another one of my photos from last year. My nephew Stone and my little pooch Mrs. O'Mally had a special connection. On this morning, Stone, in his pajamas, is just sitting on the couch rubbing her belly. She passed away on October 22, 2008. Everyone will miss her this year, I suspect Stone and myself most of all.

Here on the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving, Stone says goodbye to Mally as the family is getting ready to catch their plane back to Chicago. She was always so relaxed with him. He carried her around all week. It was a very special bond.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season this year. And to my blogger friends, I so look forward to reading about your holiday recipes and parties. Ah, Thanksgiving - I am so grateful for the reminder to give thanks for blessings great and small.

Julia Child Quotes - TOUJOURS BON APPETIT!

“You should never apologize at the table. People will think, ‘Yes, it’s really not so good.'"

"In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport."

"It's easy to get the feeling that you know the language just because when you order a beer they don't bring you oysters." Paul Child on speaking French

"I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate. "

"Life itself is the proper binge."

"It was a Morsel of Perfection."

"I was in pure, flavorful heaven at the Cordon Bleu."

Julia Child sees herself on TV, July 1962, she saw room for improvement, and still she can say it was fun : "There I was, in black and white, a large woman sloshing eggs too quickly here, too slowly there, gasping, looking at the wrong camera while talking too loudly and so on...But it had been fun."

She has her own opinions on kitchen equipment: "Clairborne sniffed at our use of a garlic press, 'a gadget considered in some circles to be only one cut above garlic salt or garlic powder.' I happened to like garlic presses..."

Understanding Julia's captivation by French food: "This is the kind of food that I have fallen in love with: not trendy souped-up fantasies, just something very good to eat. It was classic French cooking, where the ingredients have been carefully selected and beautifully and knowingly prepared. Or, in the words of the famous gastronome Curnonsky, 'Food that tastes of what it is.' "

"You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made. Even after you eat it, it stays with you - always." Julia's instructor, Chef Bugnard at Le Cordon Bleu

"Oh, 'crise de foie,' that French sole was so delicious!"

Julia's passion comes through loud and clear as she describes a fish dish: "La Truite's true glory was the Sole a la Normande, a poem of poached and flavored sole fillets surrounded by oysters, and mussels, and napped with a wonder-sauce of wine, cream, and butter, and topped with fluted mushrooms. 'Voluptuous' was the word. I had never imagined that fish could be taken so seriously, or taste so heavenly."

Julia's unique way with words, on Crepes Suzette: "The creature named Suzette may or may not have been the mistress of the Prince of Wales, but whoever she was, she long ago inspired a magnificent dessert that is still one of our favorites."

"I am probably one of the few people around who saw the real Caesar Cardini making his salad. I was about 9 when my parents took me to his restaurant in Tijuana. They were so excited when big jolly Caesar himself came to the table to make the salad. And it was dramatic: I remember most clearly the eggs going in, and how he tossed the leaves so it looked like a wave turning over."

"With a handsome package such as Jacques's, you can neatly cut the top open at the table with a pair of scissors..." Julia on Salmon en Papillote

"There's no reason to be intimidated by the idea of making pâté. You can just think of it as meat loaf."

From Julia's dear friend Jacques Pepin, "You are what you cook."

"Understanding egg yolks will make you a master of hollandaise sauce."

Julia encouraging us not to be intimidated: "When you know how to saute your meat so it browns rather than steams, you're cooking. What's difficult about that? You heat the pan, you dry the meat, you don't crowd it into the pan, and you're browning it. Is that difficult?"

Food Quotes

"Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch."

Orson Welles

"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

"Chefs, as a whole, say yes to any project, fundraiser, or tasting because they have such a generous spirit."
Charlie Trotter

"Once you understand the foundations of cooking - whatever kind you like, whether it's French or Italian or Japanese - you really don't need a cookbook anymore. "
Thomas Keller

"I love to make people happy."
Wolfgang Puck

"Fish sauce is to Vietnamese cooking as olive oil is to Italian."

The Little Saigon Cookbook by Ann Le

"I wish, I wish lunch could last forever...waiter, bring us one more bottle of wine..."

Jimmy Buffett

"My philosophy from day one is that I can sleep better at night if I can improve an individual's knowledge about food and wine, and do it on a daily basis."
Emeril Lagasse

"Gordon Ramsay makes me laugh because he knows that I'm not a chef."
Nigella Lawson

"You know, when you get your first asparagus, or your first acorn squash, or your first really good tomato of the season, those are the moments that define the cook's year. I get more excited by that than anything else."
Mario Batali

"I always knew the importance of it, since I was three or four years old my mother used to feed me wine and water. I grew up with wine as liquid food."
Robert Mondavi

"No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at his/her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, and the wisdom of cookbook writers."
Laurie Colwin

"Food is a central part of our lives. It provides the body with fuel and raw materials for maintenance, growth, and repair. It draws together family and friends, anchors celebrations and rites of passage, and sometimes soothes the soul."
Ethan Becker