Panettone

I'm now reading the book "Julie and Julia" which is now a major motion picture. Some of you know that I've been recently inspired to start cooking again now that a)I'm home and b)I can buy fresh foods without the worry of them going bad and c)after eating months of camp food, I'm fairly sick of sub par food-stuffs. The fact that all summer I actually ate something that could legally be called "food-stuffs" should tip you off right there. Not only is camp food greatly processed, fake and not so very delicious, I ate enough MRE's to have my innards permanently preserved. You could bury me in the ground as-is and I wouldn't rot for hundreds of years.

So I've re-learned the absolute joy of cooking, and cooking real food. Frozen dinners don't count. I even bought a cute little apron to inspire me. The book "Julie and Julia" has inspired me even more. In case you aren't aware of the plot, little Julie, living in New York, not exactly happy with her life, decides to take on a project of cooking every single meal in Julia Child's cook book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and blogging about it. No, I won't be chronicling every meal I cook. It worked for her because she was learning French cooking which is the French way of making something very simple, very difficult to make. I'm sure it's delicious. But I have no plans of killing my food, gelling anything out of calves feet or breaking apart the hip bone of a cow to extract the marrow. Like I said, I'm sure it's delicious but I'd rather go buy it... or not. Anyway, so nothing much exciting happens when I cook, but if it does, I'll write about it. For your enjoyment. Did I ever tell you guys about the few times I was cooking while extremely tired and actually reached into the oven and pulled out the pan... with my bare hands? I think maybe I did that twice, and both times had to do with extreme exhaustion. One of the times it managed to travel to my brain fast enough to let go before I got it out of the oven. The other time I wasn't so lucky. The nerve impulse traveled from my hand to my brain so slowly that I managed to pull the pan completely out of the oven only to drop it on the open door of the oven. As I recall, my dad or brother was standing there watching in amazement. Anyway, that hasn't happened in years.

I bought a loaf of Panettone at the store since it reminded me of the loaf I was gifted in Naples, Italy. It's the Italian equivalent of our fruit cake, but much lighter and I think normal people actually eat it. I was looking at things I can do with Panettone after finding a recipe for panettone and ice cream in my new Italian cookbook. The thing is, I love to cook, but I don't so much like to bake. I also have been completely against buying ice cream since I bought my own ice cream maker. It's just not allowed. But I haven't made ice cream in months. I may have to do something about that. I found some recipes for bread pudding made from panettone, but then again I don't bake. Baking really brings me no joy and no inspiration. I also found that I can make french toast with panettone. That didn't look particularly inspiring either. I'm wondering if I can just soak it in some Kahlua or something? I suppose there's only one way to find out.

Actually, instead of using Kahlua, I'm using Amarula, which is Marula fruit cream liquor. I don't know what a Marula fruit is but the mini bottle that I have has a picture of an elephant on it and says it's a product of South Africa. So this little treat is now an eclectic mix of Italy and South Africa. You cant really go wrong with that.

Woo! That's a lot of alcohol. Just dumped it right over the panettone. Maybe I should go back to the ice cream idea.

Yesterday I made a salad of grilled asparagus rolled in pancetta with mozzarella cheese, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. Then I made sauerkraut with kielbasa and potatoes for dinner. I forgot how good sauerkraut is on a cold rainy day.

I'm hoping my motivation to work out kicks in sometime soon. This winter weather has me wanting to do nothing but cook and eat, which could have some disastrous consequences.