Wish List Saturday

This is a mushroom ravioli that I shared with boyfriend one evening in Venice.  It was delicious. It was high in calories.  I want to eat plates and plates of this pasta.  I will determine the secret to the rich sauce, I think it has a lot to do with heavy cream.  And butter.  And more cream.  Yum.

Apple Cider Pork chops

Dinner dinner dinner! Ring ring ring! Come and get it! Okay, that’s enough. You get the gist of it, we’re not making cookies today. We’re making Pork Chops! This came out of a moment of hunger and desperation. You know those moments. You find yourself staring into a near empty fridge, trying to decide what to make for dinner. What? All I have is a package of pork chops and a gallon of apple cider? BAH!

Luckily it all turned out okay. Apple cider makes me happy. This is why I am such a happy person in the fall. Okay, maybe it also has to do with the tons of Halloween candy I eat or the fact that I’m a fall baby and I get birthday cake. I am also that one person that orders a Caramel Apple Cider from Starbucks, in July. Reducing the apple cider deepens all the tangy, apply flavors. If you happened to make some of my cranberry chutney earlier in the week, then that would also be amazing paired with this reduction.

Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

Okay, so I might be doing the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge a little out of order. Can you blame me though? Once you flip through a bread book, and see a perfect loaf of cinnamon bread, you have to try it. I know, the Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread is number nine on the list of breads, but I LOVE cinnamon bread! I can even pinpoint the reason for my love of cinnamon bread.

When we were little, my brother and I never had a babysitter. While some other kids were watched by neighbors or teenage daughters of their parents friends, we got to go to the tiny house. I loved the tiny house, because in the tiny house was my tiny Gram. At Gram’s house we would spend hours in the garden, eating grapes off of the back fence. I would sit in the kitchen, organizing the cabinets. And when we were hungry, we would get toast. Toasted cinnamon raisin bread, yum.

So baking my own loaf of cinnamon raisin bread brought back so many memories from that tiny house. More of a free form loaf bread, this doesn’t have to be perfect. This recipe made for a wonderful day, filling the house with a sweet, cinnamon aroma. So this post is in honor of that tiny house and my tiny Gram who lived inside.